40 years ago when I got involved with DCM and collecting US surplus firearms (1911s, 1093A1s, 1903A3s, M1917s, M1 Garands, M1 Carbines, Victory models, etc) there was some sound reasoning behind keeping the uncommon unmolested firearm that had not been through a major arsenal rebuild in its pristine condition and they brought a little more money.
That obviously led to people taking those arms that were rebuilt to a military specification and tolerances, and then swapping parts to restore them to “original” condition. Most Garands were arsenal rebuilt in the mid 1960s and then either shipped out as military assistance or were stored against future need for military assistance. Those Garands often got new replacement barrels made in the mid 1960s (1966 is very common) and while they now don’t have a date that matches the date of the serial number on the receiver, they are much more accurate than a wartime barrel. Removing one of them just because you come across a “correct barrel to replace it would be farm animal stupi for both accuracy purposes as well as due top all the other critical dimensions and tolerances based on the specific barrel.
That was and remains problematic as those parts guns now no longer meet any specification, and the history they had is, as your wife correctly points out, destroyed.
Your wife’s got brains and she’s a keeper. Listen to her. Leave it the way the military rebuilt it before it was stored.
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I see the same thing with “National match” rifles that have “National match” parts stamped with “NM” on parts that were never stamped NM. Similarly, I’ll see National match rifles with matching/correct parts which virtually never happened and if it did it was random chance. The same goes double for the sniper Garands that were based on NM garands and tolerances.
For example when you are fitting the gas cylinder to the gas piston on a National match Garand, (after ensuring the operating rod and its piston head are within NM spec, along with the gas cylinder and then properly fitting and staking the gas cylinder in position) you select a gas cylinder lock that snugs up within a few degrees of dead center. A military armorer did that by digging into a bin full of gas cylinder locks and trying them until he got one that fit within tolerance. He didn’t care if it was an early humped gas cylinder lock to match an early receiver or not and he didn’t care who made it. He cared that it fit within spec.
