Mikek - THANKS for the link to Rescue Tape! That looks to be exactly what I need to protect the fiberglass base insulator, which is actually still in pretty good shape. I replaced the short section of braid between the matching box and the radial spokes with a nice bit of tinned braid strap. Everything came apart pretty easy and was cleaned with a green ScotchBrite pad, and this time I used plenty of Penetrox at the joints and on the threads. Excellent so far.

The antenna is mounted atop a ten-foot + length of hurricane fence rail which is mounted to a cheap three-foot RS galvanized tripod. The tripod is bolted to a T-shaped base fabricated from 1 X 8 pine such that the whole thing can be tilted down by removal of a stainless wing nut that holds down the rear tripod leg. The base is fixed to the ground with three really big tent stakes; a set of three dacron guys completes the simple installation.

Once again, many thanks to y'all for the good ideas!

If you were happy with it's performance when it was new - you should have bought a new one when the storm damaged it - before MFJ got their grubby paws on the company and cheapened it up.

It you was good at fabrication - you probably could have made the replacement parts yourself.
And how did it work great for your mom if there was parts missing.

This whole post is a misnomer.

Throw it away, buy a new one, put it up according to the manufacturers specifications and hope that it works as well as the one you bought years ago.

My theory is sentimental value is always 100 cents on the dollar.
Real world tells me that unless you put up the same exact antenna on the same exact location and had the same exact propagation - nothing ever works the same 100% of the time...

No parts were missing any time the antenna was in use. I was able to fix the storm damage myself. The parts were lost during subsequent storage while I was overseas. Anyhow, all's well that ends well.