@Fast306stang sorry to hear you feel that way. I’ve never know Tim to bullshit at all. If it needs to be done it needs to be done. Some people are willing to settle on bandaids or just piece by piece fixes but 2R has never been the “handyman” AK Builder. They build good shit at expensive prices and do it right. They don’t cut corners.
I don’t understand the multiple estimates, honestly that’s probably more related to their new employee Dan. He was in charge of taking orders and locking prices etc and he JUST joined about the same time you sent your stuff out?
hate to say it but if you are wondering about holes being welded, or barrel pin replacement, it’s probably because the AK you got was more fucked up than you knew by simply looking at it.
they pushed the barrel out to rivet the trunnionin correctly and I bet the barrel was pressed in wrong or headspace was out and you never even knew. They may have had to reset headspace within a safe tolerance then ream out the barrel pin hole and install an oversized pin.
call and talk to TIM not DAN lol and ask. He’ll be honest with you.
hopefully they were able to get you to a point where they felt you would be safe to fire the weapon.
re-finish came into play because they ground off rivet heads on your receiver and it leaves big swirls where the grinder got a hold of it. I’m sure had you specified you were cool with the big swirls and the finish didn’t matter they would have skipped that
not trying to defend them but some of the stuff your mentioning absolutely sounds like it would come hand in hand with pressing out a barrel, grinding off rivet heads, drilling rivets out of the trunnion and then reinstalling trunnion, riveting, pressing in barrel, headspacing, then drilling and pinning the barrel back?