Going back to the lightning rods, years ago I found a store that had a few old HL's that had the holes but no lightning rods, When I asked the clerk if they knew what happened to the rods she said she didn't know, but if I wanted the pieces she would give me a discount from retail, I bought them all (I think it was 3 or 4 pieces)I called HL when I got home and asked if they had any replacement rods, about a week later I got about 10 rods taped to an index card. I just took the end of the rods and dipped them into a tube of clear silcon then pushed them back in, they all came out clean with no external residue.

HL does not have any rods left anymore, they got alot of calls looking for them the last time I told this story.... years ago.