Removable Hood Ornament

After the recent incident of my hood ornament being stolen, for the second time I might add, I was left with three choices.  I could either replace the hood ornament and treat it like a temporary decoration that someone was going to steal again, I could replace the Jaguar leaper altogether and simply put a badge in its place, or I could come up with a removable option.  While not the easiest choice of the bunch, you know by the title of this post which one I decided on.

The modification was actually pretty simple.  When my leaper was stolen the original base was left intact on the hood.  There is a metal wire that connects the leaper to that base via a spring, and as always, it's the wire disconnecting from the spring that allows the hood ornament to be removed.  The wire is actually fairly sturdy though, so what I did was remove the leaper from the spring and left the wire in place to let it act like a tensioner clip.  All I have to do is squeeze the wire and place it in the hood and it hold firmly in place.  Removing it is as simple as pulling up on the ornament and squeezing the wire again to make it release.

This is actually an incredibly simple solution that looks completely normal when in place, but that actually allows me to remove it without hassle when I park.  In all honesty I probably won't fuss with the hood ornament everyday, but it's nice that I at least have the option now.  It's one of those iconic parts of the car so it seems unfortunate that I should have to lose it simply because some people are idiots.

I'm happy knowing that I don't have to worry about this issue anymore.

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