Gentlemen:
I am the new owner of the rifle in question. I blame my tendency to love ugly puppies, rusty cars, and girls with great personalities.
I have a plan for this rifle. None of what I do to it will be irreversable. I want to say that again -
none of the things I have planned cannot be reversed. I reckon for what I have planned, this rifle is perfect.
Here's where I'm going:
The boy went as a Jawa last year, and was short a sidearm. This would fix that oversight, and make for a cool father/son project.
The barrel comes off and goes into storage. The paint comes off by whatever least-intrusive method I can find (suggestions?). The forestock is toast, so I reckon she gets hacksawed to length and refinished. The short barrel will be replaced by an aluminum rod cut to length and threaded to match the receiver. The cup gets made from plumbing supplies.
That leaves the stock. This one looks pretty fair. Does anyone have a particularly scabby one they'd like to trade? I don't want to destroy anything of value here, so if someone has a nasty piece they'd like to trade straight across, I'd be happy to go along. Same goes for the forestock, if it's something you can use.
In time, when my lad is no longer fixated on Star Wars, she'll get restored to her rightful condition. Until then, it's one more small indignity atop the several thousand she's suffered to date.