WASR GP 10/63 project.

     I bought a WASR GP 10/63 rifle a while back (luckily before the surge in semi-auto rifles began) and figured I would make it a rainy day project since I can almost never leave anything alone. For anyone who doesn't know what this rifle is, it is an AKM variant modeled after the original AK-47 design. This rifle is made in Romania using surplus parts from actual Romanian military rifles. Originally these weapons were shipped to the United States during the Clinton era "assault weapons" ban, which was from 1994 to 2004. During this time 30 round double stack magazines were banned and so these rifles were made with narrow magazine wells to accept 10 round single stack magazines. Century arms imported them and replaced several parts with american made pieces to comply with the federal regulations. These rifles were known as the 10/63...10 being the magazine size and 63 being the year of the design. The newer versions of this rifle are known as the GP 10/63 for "general purpose" and are not to be confused with the originals which developed a reputation for being cheap weapons. It is true that the price of one of these WASR's is significantly lower than many other brands of AKM, but there are several reasons for this. First, the romanian made AK variants far outnumber any other country's design and are imported much more, obviously driving the price of the rarer models up. Second, the WASR rifles come with the bare minimum in order to keep prices low. This rifle did not come with a strap, extra magazines, or carrying case and the wood parts of the gun are unfinished. This saves the consumer quite a bit of money because it costs the manufacturer less to make it. 
I wasn't smart enough to take before pictures so this is a picture of a WASR GP 10/63 I found online. You can see that this person has a strap on thiers but mine came without one and the wood was sanded to about 80 grit.

     The first thing I would recommend to anyone who buys one of these is to seal or finish the wood to prevent it from rotting. This isn't very expensive and improves the life of your weapon tremendously. I chose not to use any stain on mine but instead replaced the handguard with an aluminum quad rail and gave the butt stock several layers of spray on Rustoleum clear coat after sanding it down to 400 grit. This spray dries quickly and offers a layer of protection from dropping damage or water. Next I bought a couple cans of ultra flat camo paint and colored the top cover, quad rail, rear sight block, and magazines. I then gave those parts the same clear coat treatment I gave the stock. I also added a muzzle break to the barrel. The rifle came with a barrel nut welded onto the muzzle so I had to break through the weld and clean it up to attatch the new part. Here are a few after pictures.

The rifle itself was 530 dollars (probably more now) and with another 10 dollars in paint and a little sandpaper it now looks like this. The black rubber grip sections you see on the forward and pistol grips are made by Manta-rail and the rail covers which I have in olive drab and black are UTG.  As usual , feel free to email or comment any questions and I will be glad to help out.