The Bumpers

So I got the newly rechromed bumpers set out at 10:00 am and we were away. The first step was to mount the parking lights and for some reason the holding brackets would not sit rights and it took about an hour of messing before the lights were fitted. The next step was to fit the brackets and once again nothing would fit and I spent an eternity twatting around. I had a look under Gene's Galaxie but that didn't really help and then Gene suggested that I go to the back of the yard were he knew there was a Galaxie front bumper with the brackets attached. There I found my old front bumper. (I knew it was mine as it still had the old tag on it). Somewhat puzzled by this unexpected find I hauled it to the workshop and laid it next to mine. It was instantly obvious that these were different bumpers and when I called Gene over to see the color drained from his face and he mumbled "I don't want to see. I don't want to see". Well he did see and told me that I had spent $475 on replating a 1962 bumper. This was not my happiest hour and I still do not see how I managed to put down a 63 and pick up a 62. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth Gene pointed out a bumper hanging from the rafters in the shop. It was, apparently rechromed 20 years ago and was there in case Gene ever hits a deer in the Galaxie. (Gene has a thing about hitting deer in the Galaxie even though the car has only been used twice in the last year). So I now have a "borrowed" front bumper that has to be returned on demand, and that is a fair deal. So I pulled this 50 lb monster down and it looked like a pile of Satan's faeces. However I did notice that as my (copious) tears hit the bumper they washed away 20 years of crud and underneath it almost possibly looked nearly bearable. So I washed it with hot and soapy and it looked quite reasonable with a song in my heart I cleaned it with some thinners and guess what? It looks like new, not quite as good as my 62 but nevertheless perfectly adequate and after a tickle with some chrome polish I think we will be in business. So I took the lights out of the 62 and reinstalled then into the 63 (they fitted perfectly, natch) and installed the brackets and at 4:00 I was ready to install the bumper having spent the last 5 hours achieving precisely FA.
The rest of the story is just nuts and bolts except for the fact that my camera decided to come out in sympathy with Galaxie and although it gave the illusion of taking 9 images it actually took only one, here it is.

So my only option is to put the 62 bumper on Ebay to see if I can recoup some of my ill spent wedge. I am not too hopeful as, to be frank, the 62 was a piece of crap when it was new and no one could possibly be daft enough to want to restore that piece of dog dump.

I tell you if this car does not turn out to be the best skank magnet in four counties I am taking it to the shredder and doing a Christine on it.