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Clamp size, top or bottom pull?

I would go and talk to Condor, a proper shop and framebuilder.

A lot depends on things like your dropout length. Shimano guidelines are guaranteed to work - generally there is substantially more wriggle room. Wind the B-tension screw in and it most likely will be fine.

Looks very tidy. Maybe a Rock Lobster (the Merlin's Bike Shop type)? IIRC they did them in nickel plate for a couple of years.

You can keep touching up with Kurust to stop the surface corrosion. C&G Finishes (via GA Cycles in Southampton) did an amazing job on my Witcomb, I would have a chat with them. https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1980-witcomb-restoration.477670/

1990 would be M550, which is 7 speed.

Looks right as Ti to me. Rear dropouts are too thin to be alloy.

Got a tidy one which you can have for £20 posted. It needs new jockeys though.

Steel has an infinite fatigue life provided there are no stress raisers (e.g. poor welds or badly-sited braze-ons). Hence the number of 50+ year old steel road frames still happily being ridden. But of course you have corrosion to consider. Aluminium is fundamentally different in that its...

Most people cannot tell the difference between XTR and Deore when riding in the dark. All the basic Shimano stuff works well, just stay away from their regular daft gimmicks (Rapid Rise, Octalink, parallel push V-Brakes, Uniglide, Silent Clutch, the brake-shifter combi levers, metric chains...

There are decent step by step guides on the web. The best bit of advice I found was to have a small piece of card (a business card is ideal) to hold the flat spiral spring in place during reassembly.

Most years Lava Dome and Cinder Cone shared the same frame, so I would again start with 26.4. https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/kona-1991-frame-front-mech-and-seatpost-query.411857/ Probably it's 26.6 nominal with no heat distortion from welding.

Check the seat tube for ovality, especially by nudging the clamping area open a little. Also measure the post - it should indeed be 26.4. There can be some alarming discrepancies to what is nominal though, often 0.1mm.

Also consider Tern - made by a breakaway from Dahon after a family disagreement.

Always used to be Avenue Cyclery...but I haven't been there in over 10 years. http://www.avenuecyclery.com/

Which kit did you settle for finally? Just want to check before looking at one for the Mrs, who has arthritis in her hip.

Slate grey

It will be fine. I've run Campag 10s chainsets in 7s systems with no trouble.

Does it have disc tabs? I think not as my F2000 didn't IIRC. If no tabs then you cannot fit discs easily. The original wheels will be lighter than modern ones as they have fewer spokes but make up for it with heavier rims. It's hard to get decent 26" rim brake wheels now.

Rode a Kingcycle on a taster day in Sussex. It was hard work uphill as it used different muscles, very much winching up. On the flat the lack of wind resistance was a revelation, downhill it felt like flying a jet fighter. 30mph comes up incredibly easily.