Take pictures of everything before, during and after taking the dish (es) apart, but try to video the process as that will also give better and easier reference. Label the panels with numbers, write down dis-assembling of the dish (es) , separate the bolts and put them in plastic baggies and label them, photograph and video each step and where each bolt goes where.
You might want to get new stainless steel nuts and bolts if you can find them for those dishes. Look to see if old assembly instructions are available on the web or on E-Bay. Good luck with the project, can't wait to see the pictures after everything is up.
Oh believe me, I intended to take a LOT of photos. Video, not so much. My camera has a limit of 12 minutes of video recording built in. Because my camera can record video far better than any commercial grade camera, the people that make professional video cameras forced a restriction by legislation on the amount of time that DSLR cameras can record because they were afraid these cameras would destroy them.
Anyway.. I'll be taking tons and tons of pictures..
I plan to take a sharpie and write on every single piece I take apart so I can match everything back when the time comes to reassemble. I'll also be using zip locks. Heavy duty freezer type so they will be tough enough to not get ripped and lose parts!
Once I get these things down and moved to my place I plan to take the time to restore them to Like New condition.
I'm going to strip them down and repaint them, I'm going to do as good a job, if not better, than American Restoration would do.
No compromise, LIKE NEW...
As for info, there is NONE.. These things are sooooo pre-internet that there's nothing at all about them, anywhere.
I even went to archive.org and tried to go back through the Way Back Machine and pull up OLD Scientific Atlanta stuff and there's nothing at all.
These things are early 80's and fell off the radar years before the internet.
So I'm on my own when it comes to anything about them.
I restored that 10' Odom dish to very near like new. It took me over a year to do it and I had to have the help of my dad (plus I had to pay someone to plant the poles) but I got it done and I use that dish every single day.
I talked to my dad yesterday about the dishes and he said that late next week (weather permitting) he would ride out there with me to take a look at them so we can begin to figure out a way to get them down and transported to my place.
We've also talked about getting the trees here taken down before I get the big dishes put up. The trees cause other problems besides interfere with the dishes and there's the very serious concern that a hurricane could blow them over and destroy my house. So sometime this spring I'm having ALL the trees taken down. That's going to help a lot. Bamboo will be going up around the yard to hide everything but that's going to take years for it to grow enough to hide the biggest dishes. I'm planting bamboo that tops out at 12' tall. I could also maybe plant some that tops out at 20' tall, I'm looking into that. I'm even planting some to hide the dishes from MY view. I'm working towards having a secret garden and a Zen garden and I want all man made things hidden from my view. Eventually the dishes will be a hidden island in a sea of bamboo..