Hi 'bell's,
I've also just got hold of a 94 usa built RTS to "do up". It's my 2nd RTS.
If you haven't already started here's some tips:
1. Before anything else spray some penetrating oil like wd40 on all the nuts, leave it for 10 mins then repeat. This can save lots of trouble if anything has been over-tightened then left to seize. Pay special attention to the chainring style bolts on the mech hanger and chainstay /seatstay pivots. Those ones are special cos they're 18mm long. But they are also easy to round out with an allen key. Make sure they're oiled up, poke any dirt out of the head and get that allen key in nice n deep.
2.loosen everything just a little bit, including the shock, and the rose joint on end of the shock before starting to fully disassemble.
3.the shock comes out forward and to the left. There's more room if you unthread it from the rose joint, wind the spring right off and compress the shaft.
4. disassemble the rest.
5.the top main pivot should be a Bush. Mine was seized. I simply freed it off by tightening the bolt and nut back onto it (without the seat stays), spraying with penetrating oil and gently working the bolt round and back with an Allen key. I repeated this several times until it felt reasonably free, then dried it off and sprayed a dry lube with ptfe (aka gt85) into it to give a bit of lasting lubrication. It's a quick fix for something that I think could be a pain to strip out.
6. The rocker has sealed bearings in it. They are 608rs size and there's loads of them on ebay for a couple of quid. They are really common in skateboard wheels. If you haven't replaced bearings like this before then I'd suggest looking it up on YouTube. Just don't use a socket on the seal or inside race of the new bearings when you tap them in. Once in no grease required.
7. The chainstay bush centres can be pressed out of the nylon, both surfaces can be cleaned and then reassembled (careful how you do this, support the side you're working on so you don't snap it!). I remember these sometimes used to squeek back in the day. I don't remember what the best grease was but one thing I can say is don't use a copper grease. Common advice was run these dry. Anyway Ive just used a bit of manitou prep m suspension grease.
For the finish, they were ball burnished, meaning they were left in a vibrating machine full of tiny balls until they came out all shiny. It wasn't a truly smooth mirror finish.. If you looked closely you could see a tiny dimpled/orange peel effect. I've tried to find somewhere to have this re-done but no luck whatsoever.
If you want perfection, you could sand out any scratches with wet and dry paper, moving up through the grades before finishing with a very fine grit and then Solvol Autosol on a microfiber cloth.
If you haven't mirror polished before, then again, you could look it up on YouTube.
To maintain the finish, you can polish once in a while with autosol but be very careful near the edges of decals - it's mildly abrasive and will rub the colour off stickers with ease. A regular car wax after the autosol will help preserve the shine so that less frequent polishing is needed.
Phew!
Good luck. Post a pic of it dude!
