Thank you all for not replying to my posts... I mean it. I was forced to really dig deep into the forums.
I found very helpful posts about using zmltpinject plus a fabulous script by gitzc
here that adds a date header to each message. RRREALLY saved my bacon.
So that means I actually didn't repair the broken installation of zimbra; I just put in a new one and injected all the old email into it.
Great forum this!