Rear Bumper Reloaded

This should have been easy. The rear bumper used to look like this.

Now it looks like this.

 

All I had to do was find a new center bumper piece.  Which I did, as the photo illustrates. 

But to get the old bumper removed and ready for re-installation was not so simple a task. First, the bumper had to be removed.  What was required was to cut the bolt that held the d/s bumper horn to the quarter panel, as the internal cage nut had frozen as hard as an Antarctic glacier.

The end of the bolt still inserted into the cage nut was then drilled out.

And the cage nut re-tapped.

 Last step was to rust-proof the new rig.

At the end it was necessary to take some time to admire the NOS bumper center,  so old the part number sticker on it only contained seven digits.

Now it was reinstalled, to be admired in contrast to the nearby long-neck differential.

All but the first two photos donated by Patrick O'Neil and Midnight Motorsport, who also did all the work (with the exception of sawing the old bumper horn bolt).