Timber refinish or replace, what about the metal?

I am working on turning my No.4 into a "newish" looking rifle. The metal will need refinished but that a saga all on its own for another time. The metal I am referring to in the thread title is the pieces permanently affixed onto the furniture. How can I refinish the steel without risking damage to the wood or vice versa? How about replacement stock sets, are these "unissued" sets also unfinished and do they have the metal already on them and is the metal already finished?

please advise,
Crazy4milsurps

The only bit that will affect what you are doing is the cap, handguard, upper. You can just drill out the turned over rivet heads and slide it off to reparkerise and paint it or just mask it up and gently bead blast it if you're just going to repaint it. Replacement brass rivets are readily available. The handguards only came through the Ordnance system as a complete assembly.

The cap, fore-end slides off after pushing out the two pins

Then again you could just bend up a piece of 1inch flat, butt it on a round base and mount a yard glass.