[B_and_D]

I know that at least one member here has added a side a/c, so their dealer must've found a drip/drain pan somewhere and a grate (this was fairly recently done). Our side a/c grate is bigger than the hole it covers, so you won't necessarily need an exact fit.

I think boogerhead made a good point that you may need to buy some specialty tools and other items besides just the raw materials to make the fixes. One year I found a porch swing at OSH for $59 and I asked DH to buy it for my birthday. Well, the chains that came with it weren't long enough, so we had to buy new chains. Then we needed special long eye-bolts to go through the beam we wanted to mount it on, and washers. Then, we didn't have a drill bit long enough to go through the beam. And then we needed a certain size s-hook to hook the chains to the eye-hooks. And then some chain links to properly hook up the chair. The whole thing probably cost us another $60 when we were done (but I like it a lot!). So, things can definitely add up! Some good news: I've found that the parts I've ordered from the TM factory are very reasonable.

It seems to me that most people nowadays run away screaming from something that looks like this, so the dealer's market may well be pretty limited. Also consider what your time is worth when you make the offer. There may be some things that you aren't able to do yourself, and will have to have a TM dealer work on (like the shell adjustment). Just make sure that you don't pay too much for it. They might be very happy to just get it off their lot, what with winter coming. It says something to me that the dealer didn't want to invest any labor or money into fixing it up so that it would be more saleable - either they didn't think they would get enough money out of it to make it worth their while, or they didn't know what to do, but I suspect the first idea.

Keep us posted!

Dee