Okay, so I finally go around to fixing the hood ornament. Thought i'd take a few pics. And do a somewhat of a write up.

Materials. If you hood ornament was stolen like mine, and you opened the hood soon afert words, you will find a few things, if you didn't you may have to make them yourself.

-the base
-the end cap for the spring
-the spring
-the plastic bolt
- a bicycle brake cable, my recommendation, since i don't not know the strenghth of this is to get something abit stronger.
- be prepared to presure things

TOOls, a hammer, possibly a welder if you don't wand the jerk off to take it again. And a metal shaft or allen key that fits perfect inside the end cap.

1. Secure the items.
2. The end cap was the failure point/ damaged point if yours was stolen like mine. You will notice the hole at the bottom of the cap is made bigger.
You have to options, to fashion/find a stronger replacement or repair it. I chose to repair it.
3. Place the allen key inside, and carefullt hit witht eh hammer, it should return to its orignal form.
4. Thread the brake cable thorugh the hole, so the the end cyclinder is right at the hole.
5. thread through spring.
6. thread through base.
7.thread through the leaper.
thread back through the base, spring and end cap You may want to interwine as theis will be somewaht better.
8. if you are using a brake cable you will have LOTS left over.
9. compression the spring, making sure the the leaper is flush with the base, more pressure on the spring is better. Keep pullin on the excess cable till humanly hurtfull.
10, wrap tie, or weld the cable to the end cyclinder, I'm going to tie in a impossible knot.
11. replace on the car if you wish to do so.



PICS





















And thats that, let me know waht u guys think!

By the way, get some pliers and crank that thing, right now i have it at the point were if it comes off, its going to be come a projectile, so the enxt time some tries to take, well see them in the local morgue lol

The brake cable is availble at your local sport mart/ bicycle shop

 

An ingenious solution, but if someone tries to remove it, finds it's tethered would they take it out on the car with the mascot?

 

Good solution but at the same time I'd be worried about it and wouldnt do it to my car.

If some guy went through the trouble of trying to steal my hood ornament only to discover it is tethered to the car.... Well now he's holding a perfect tool to scrape the crap out of my hood in spite. At least if it comes clean off he'll probably just go away and its a cheap fix via ebay. Better that than having to repaint your car for pissing a thief off. People are a-holes. If he's a big enough a-hole to steal my hood ornament, he's probably a big enough a-hole to ruin my car for ruining his enjoyment.

 

Great fix Disco, nice write up too

Ufoz, I see your point and you're totally right unfortunately ) and its an indictment of todays society and the way we're made to think...

We need to be thinkin more proactively and not trying to fix this AFTER the dirty deed has been done...

I'm thinkin my solution would be sumthin along these lines... Some sort of tie in with a tazer type device connected in some way to the base of the leaper and connected in some way to the alrm system of the vehicle ( which may have to be made more sensitive )
The process being, when the car is locked and alarm is activated, then someone trys to steal the leaper a shock of 50,000 volts advises them not to

 

I just have this for theft deterrent.

 

Guys, I remember years ago when my dad was alive, he had told me a little trick they use to do back in the 40's 50's & 60's. They would take a coil with a condenser on the side, and hook it up somehow to the cars body and when it was and when someone would touch the car they would get a good kick. Almost like what they do to farm animals in a field. You have to put a switch under the frame somewhere so you could turn the juice off so you wouldn't get knocked. But it would be something to really think about today guys, with all the electronics, sensors, and relays there's got to be a good reason not to do this any more with your car. But on the other hand with car remotes today and other electronic devices someone with enough time on there hands could come up with something that would work with today's eletronics. The good old days

 

NO NO NO NO No, you guys got it wrong, theres no way i'd tetherer it to the car lol. The excess wire is cut offf. So it looks/ and perfomrs exactly like anew one from a dealership lol.

 

Your tips were great. For the wire, I used a brand called Anchor Wire 15 ft braided 20lb capacity that I found at Lowes (part #12127, ISBN #08236181517). For the crimp, I used a screw in type that I bought at Amazon (Barnett Emergency Cable Repair Clamp #11-80-34460).