No, it didn't start out synthetic. It had a wooden stock and forend. The stock was cracked in two places and the forend was in bad shape. I had a lot of trouble getting the forend off. The wood was really tight. So finally I just broke it in half.
I wouldn't suggest that if you plan to re-use it. Mine was trash anyway.
The Shurshot forend goes on very easily, at least mine did. The stock was pretty easy as well. It was my first time working on a shotgun at all so I went to youtube and looked up videos for 870's. Had a pretty decent selection.
I did notice a metal piece that was inbetween the reciever and the stock when I took off the wooden stock. Some kind of spacer I guess. It didn't fit between the reciever and the Shurshot, so I just left it out.
The gun wasn't black to start out with either. I did that with Brownell's Baking Laquer, Glossy Black.
The whole thing was a whole lot easier than I thought. And your very welcome. If you have anymore questions just ask. I'm no expert but no matter what question, someone on here will know.