Hey mate,
welcome! Sorry for the late reply! [&:]
You have a pretty used example there, but not beyond rescue. To answer your questions:
I would take it apart completely. Thats the best way to check everything and see whats broken and whats ok.
If you're not too experienced, take pics of each step while dissasembling and put the parts and screws in seperate bags. Clean everything.
1) The first thing to do is to register at
www.tamiyaclub.com and download/view the manual for the 959. So you can easily put it back together and rebuild your shocks.
If you intend to run it again, I would swap all the bushings for ball bearings while at it.
2) The motor seems to be original. There is a black sticker on the side of the motor which should read "RX540VZ Technigold". The sticker is hidden by the servo in pic 6.
3) Tires are very hard to find and very expensive. Ebay is a your best bet. As they are in an awkward 1/12 scale, there are no aftermarket tires that fit the stock wheels.
4) I use DOT4 brakefluid to remove old paint from plastic. Put the wheels in a jar and cover them completly in brakefluid. Let them soak for a day and you'll notice the paint to crumble. Now you can take the paint of using a brush or a towel. Be patient! The plastic won't take any harm using this method. The wheels should come out great. But don't use it on the lexan shell! It makes the lexan cloudy.
Have fun restoring your 959! [sm=teeth_smile.gif]