A while ago I bought a Kar 98 Mauser with the intent of having a project rifle to learn on, its a 30.06, I need some advise as to if I'm starting off with a decent starter rifle to work on or if I should just keep it as a "behind the seat of the truck beater", and look for something else, heres what I had in mind:

Someone in its previous ownership sporterized it, and they did a butcher job of grinding away some metal to clear the bolt handle, I'd like to clean that up so it looks better (pics to follow), what should I use? A dremel? some metal files and a finishing stone of some sort?

I'm considering changing the caliber, I'd really really like a .416 Taylor, can that be build on this gun?

I'd like to change up the bottom metal to easier facilitate the dumping of cartridges, the stock "poke it with a shell" doesn't do it for me.

I'd like to change up the bolt handle, I wouldn't be preforming this job, and of course everything would be checked by a gunsmith before I did anything.

The stock has lots of bumps and minor marks (though it actually pretty decent) I want to strip it down, iron out the little marks, and refinish it, or have a good stock guy make me up a new one, depending on how this works out.

So I guess I'm asking, can it be made into a 416 Taylor, is the metal ground out not worth the hassle (can I make it look good enough to show it to friends?) and what are my options for bottom metal?

Thanks guys!

-Trev