Lovingly meticulous is very understandable. I love all my drums and will go to extremes to make them all original, with exact original parts, put back exactly the way they should be. Hunt for the correct oem parts with painstakingly pateince. Always having to wait for that last elusive part to complete a restoration. Putting a lug back in the same holes with the exact screws that came out of it? How do you do that? Engrave a number on the back side of the screw washer, so you can clean the screws? Take a pic of the drum and number the holes? IM trying to figure out what I would do If I ever want to try this method, but I examined a few lugs with a microscope and cant tell any difference in the lugs or screws. A typical bass drum has 20 lugs and 40 screws. I suppose I could remove the lugs and lay them out in order and tape them to the table in case I accidently bump the table. Get 40 small containers and number them and clean each individual screw, the dry them oil them and lay them out in order. Polish each lug and put it back in order. Polish the shell and do what ever repairs needed. Then reassemble.......Oh hell I forgot to put the tension rods in order! Ill do that on the floor tom.......I may replace all the lug screws with nos screws I got off of ebay. I might actually replace all the ternsion rods also, but I may just reuse the original parts and love the petina. It all depends which kit Im doing. I have a 68 sky blue pearl all original kit I plan to clean and restore someday. It belonged to a dear friend that passed away. I love this drum kit above all my others and I havent ever touched it. It's 43 yrs old. I wonder if anyone ever replaced a screw on it?
Ha, haaaaaaaaa!! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and......yes!! Too funny. What I do is very simple. I have a piece of plywood with tape that has numbers on it; 1 to 10 (up to 20 lugs for batter and reso {reso's go below the batter}). I remove each lug and place the screws back into the lug where they came out of, then lay the lug down on the appropriate numerically designated taped spot. Very easy. To reassamble, you go backwards. I have been using the clockwise from the badge lug as #1. You go around like a firing-order. No fuss, no mess. Easy-peasy. Sounds anal; might just be even more so, but so what. I don't work.
B
PS - Doing something random is not worse nor better, to me. This is just what I do and it is not meant to pee on any other methods someone might employ. Just enjoy your take on vintage drum stewardship.