30 ❘ September 05, 2019 http://www.oldcarsweekly.com

“N

othing beats a failure

but a try.” Now there’s

an obscure adage. In

my fairly long lifetime,

I’ve only known a cou-

ple folks who’ve said

that. One was Rick Richards, an

accomplished body man whom I

worked for as a kid. If he’s up there

watching, he’s probably shaking

his head.

Since relocating to northwest-

ern Montana, I’ve been led to a

number of older wrecking yards.

They’re out here, so whenever I

can help friends with hard-to-fi nd

parts, I’m on it. For quite some time

a friend in California had been on

thehuntfora non-rodded’32 Ford

frame. I found it, got it to him and it

worked out very well.

More recently, a friend was in

need of a left rear bumper end for

his ’55 Cadillac. I found that, too.

Before it was pulled from the sal-

vage car, I looked it over and felt it

under, but somehow in the weeds

Can a ’55 Cadillac

bumper end be saved?

BYROTTENRODNEYBAUMAN

BumpEr End

bUmmEr