Likely of no interest to a lot of collectors but I didn't have one of these so I picked up a cheapy to mess with (rough and not cheap enough) while parts are being sourced on other projects.

First of all "stripped, cleaned, serviced and ready to go" .......my a**e!
It fired and looked as if nothing was missing, barrel locked up tight so I took it.

Anyway bent spring, full of dirty grease and crud, throughout the whole gun in fact.
No matter I wanted to strip one anyway and I could see through the bull, cheap guns serviced by this fella have usually been scrubbed with wire wool that gets in the cylinder then rammed with grease and soaked with oil!

Questions though, first pic I say to myself are these friction piston as no washer visible?? Strangely with no washer and a weedy spring it did put a pellet quite well into some 3x2 pine, very close range though.
Then (pic 22) in the strip down there is a very thin leather washer wedged at the end of the cylinder and the piston does have a screw hole in the end.
I'm asking myself, as a gem and period novice, is the washer a damper for the end of the cylinder when the piston lands if the piston is naked? stupid thought? or should it have one as I'd have expected and what is the nearest type to source?
Pic 3, the (now clean) latch grove in the piston had no depth or profile due to thick crud which did seem like a mixture of dried grease and leather? but is no doubt why the trigger action seems worse than expected for a crude set up.
So second question is what is the correct set up so I can start to put things right & are compatible piston washers available? I see Protek offer the main springs.
https://imgur.com/gallery/3RKub3h