I want to say a big thank you to Mad_Mike for giving me info and advice for the boot plinth he done on his 3.0 X now I have finally finished mine. had to wait for parts I ordered from Hong Kong which took a little time to arrive, appreciate any thoughts...

 

Oh man do I want to pick your brain. I have the same plinth on my 03, what did you use to cut out the letters and the button lit up looks amazing too...gotta tell me how you removed it and anything during the install in particular to look out for...did you get a replacement then experiment or you used just the one you had.

 

Hello Bracester,

Thanks for your enthusiasm, I used a micro 0.3mm drill bit to drill tiny holes along the length of the lettering then used a small flat file to to carefully remove the remainder of the plastic then I taped the front of each letter and filled the reverse side with clear silicon mainly because of the unpredictable weather here in the uk but also to give it a more natural look. As for the button I used the one I bought, you will have to make a holder for the new button because it has a different type of fitting to the original Jaguar one I used a piece of thick Perspex.
You have to drill three holes into the Perspex two to fit over the original two holes that secure the original switch and one main hole for the new switch make sure you get it centred the best you can. Once I had done that I used a hot glue gun to secure the switch on both sides of the Perspex holder then fitted it to the plinth then its a case of laying in the LEDs and wiring them to the switch. Fairly straight forward. You should be okay we should see pictures of your efforts on he soon.. Lol

Best of luck please let me know I can help with info

 

Okay...now as far as removal of the plinth...pretty easy? Any particular steps you recommend?

 

Removing it is really easy, once the boot/trunk carpet is removed you need to undo four small nuts and then there is a spring clip at each end.

 

Sweet man I really want to do this...thinking cool white though like my license LEDs

 

Thanks brother...how long were your led strips?

 

You are very welcome, the LEDs I used were 30cm 15 led strips x2 although these were a little to long but just folded it over on the end you would probably get away with using 2 10 led strips instead?

 

What kind of tape did you use so the silicone does not stick I also want to do this for water tightness...

 

Hello Bracester,

Sorry been busy over past couple days anyway I just used electrical insulation tape just break a piece off and lay it over the letters individually then using your finger rub the letter shape out so the tape sits nice and snug over the letter then you can fill the letter from behind with clear silicon I used a child's glue stick to spread the silicon it makes getting into the small area easier and makes sure the silicon is spread properly. For the letter J & R you will need to drill a small hole in the top of the securing braket to allow the light to shine through only needs a 3mm hole or something like it as those letters are in line with the brackets and you won't get the full benefit from the led otherwise. I have got a couple of pictures of the filling process I will try and ad them later.

 

id like to see how you filled the silicone in the letters
and how it looks in the daytime with the leds off
thanks

 

Hello,

This is a photo of part of the plinth couldn't get a close up of the complete thing owing to picture size it wouldn't let me upload anyway as you can see the silicon is reasonably well suited to chrome colour of plinth

 

it looks good bud ,in few hours ill have mine installed

 

Oh man I need to get on the band wagon....will be doing this when my wife is out of town and I don't have my child with me all the time