I recently received a Cadex Field Competition chassis in a trade. The individual that traded it to me was very generous with respect to trade value. I think the blue duracoat might have thrown a few off and I had something close to what he was looking for though not exactly. So... thanks to him for extending the trade anyway!
I received the chassis in the following color / condition. I dropped in a Surgeon CSR BA (16") to test fit. There had been some rough filing done where I am assuming an extended scope rail interfered with the chassis (which he had explained was the case prior to the trade). I also noticed after dropping the BA in that I would never be able to fit a supressor with the existing fore end since it was about 1.5" too long in total. I also, in the end, had to mill out a very tiny bit around the bolt release to ensure clearance which wasn't too difficult. Other than that, it was just bright blue!
I disassembled the chassis entirely, down to the last bolt and dropped the whole thing, with the exception of the butt pad, in Acetone and let it soak for around 12 hours. It had some light impact on the paint it in small spots but not enough to allow for the removal of the duracoat entirely. I ended up putting the parts in a sandblaster and after a few hours, ended up with a clean (mostly) aluminum chassis framework.
I needed to address the fore end. I was originally looking into the cost of a different length and realized quickly that Cadex stuff is not cheap or easy to acquire! So, I am fortunate enough to have a hobby machine shop in my garage and took the fore end to my Bridgeport mill and started cutting. I came close to matching the geometry of the original shape, but not exactly. It was done free hand, but ended up looking close and, more importantly, mostly clean.
Other than another pass at sandblasting, I needed to take care of the rougher cutout that had been done earlier near the scope rail. I couldn't come up with a fixture that would allow me to mill it safely so I took a file and did some slow tedious work to get it as straight and clean as possible.
Lastly, I took it over to a friends house where we Cerakoted the chassis. That AI FDE/Brown/Tan color is very odd to match. He had several earth tones laying around that he had only used on a single project and I "winged" and put a few them together that I hoped would work well, not only with the Surgeon BA, but also to have some contrast and not a single washed out color. I ended up picking Cerakote Coyote and Glock FDE.
Here's where it sits for now. Still working on Glass, Bipod, Scope Rings, Grip, etc.
In daylight...
edited for grammar
I received the chassis in the following color / condition. I dropped in a Surgeon CSR BA (16") to test fit. There had been some rough filing done where I am assuming an extended scope rail interfered with the chassis (which he had explained was the case prior to the trade). I also noticed after dropping the BA in that I would never be able to fit a supressor with the existing fore end since it was about 1.5" too long in total. I also, in the end, had to mill out a very tiny bit around the bolt release to ensure clearance which wasn't too difficult. Other than that, it was just bright blue!
I disassembled the chassis entirely, down to the last bolt and dropped the whole thing, with the exception of the butt pad, in Acetone and let it soak for around 12 hours. It had some light impact on the paint it in small spots but not enough to allow for the removal of the duracoat entirely. I ended up putting the parts in a sandblaster and after a few hours, ended up with a clean (mostly) aluminum chassis framework.
I needed to address the fore end. I was originally looking into the cost of a different length and realized quickly that Cadex stuff is not cheap or easy to acquire! So, I am fortunate enough to have a hobby machine shop in my garage and took the fore end to my Bridgeport mill and started cutting. I came close to matching the geometry of the original shape, but not exactly. It was done free hand, but ended up looking close and, more importantly, mostly clean.
Other than another pass at sandblasting, I needed to take care of the rougher cutout that had been done earlier near the scope rail. I couldn't come up with a fixture that would allow me to mill it safely so I took a file and did some slow tedious work to get it as straight and clean as possible.
Lastly, I took it over to a friends house where we Cerakoted the chassis. That AI FDE/Brown/Tan color is very odd to match. He had several earth tones laying around that he had only used on a single project and I "winged" and put a few them together that I hoped would work well, not only with the Surgeon BA, but also to have some contrast and not a single washed out color. I ended up picking Cerakote Coyote and Glock FDE.
Here's where it sits for now. Still working on Glass, Bipod, Scope Rings, Grip, etc.
In daylight...
edited for grammar
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