I would go for the FA. They are so nice right out of the box.
For me redoing a Ruger is kind of like remodeling an 60 to 70 year old house. It might be all up dated with all the latest bells and whistles and look fantastic but in the end............its still an old house!!!!
Either way you wind up with a great handgun!
I remember touring the Ruger plant in New Hampshire - where Pine Tree casting resides, when I was researching my Ruger book. I will never forget the look on the engineer?s face when I asked which corner of the building was Freedom, Wyoming..... yeah, Pine Tree (Ruger) was casting their frames...
I can tell you with certainty that my custom Rugers are a lot nicer than my FAs and I still love my FAs, but they?re not the end-all, be-all IMHO.
Again, I would also suggest a close look at BFR because are lacking nothing really and they keep getting better with regular refinements.
