So after posting pics with the Mina 2008 grille about half of you said the leaper was too much. I also find it a little girlish and 1970s-ish, I just didn't know what to do short of repainting the hood. The other problem I had was that the new grille had a big black and silver growler badge, so the OE green leaper replacement roundel would have looked bad in my opinion. I spent hours looking at options on ebay - then decided to make my own.

The base is a 2" self-adhesive wheel center cap roundel painted platinum silver and cleared to match the car. I removed the little growler from my old grille and ground off the two positioning pins leaving just the screw peg for secure mounting. Then I flattened it as much as possible. Drilled a 1/4" hole in the roundel and added 3M molding tape to the bottom of the mini growler. Once finished, I mounted everything up on the hood. The mod is still reversible. The result is something closer to body color than the other xmas ornament options. This is another mod that looks better than pics taken at 2am in my garage can do justice:




Edit: Adding daytime pics and from a distance.





I think I'll keep it.

 

I like it, nice job;

I'm of the school that leapers and modern Jaguars are not quite right. (others will certainly disagree with me, each to their own I say).

 

Nice. What's next? The only thing I can suggest would be the addition of the 2009 door mirriors with the inbuilt led indicators.

 

Hey Jeremy,

Can you take some updated shots to see the big picture?


+1 on the 2009 mirror mod, I was trying to beat ya on it, lol.


- Dave

 

Yah baby! That`s a great look, Jeremy. Leaper looked out of place.

 

If I didn't have the fender lights, maybe. I'm good for a while now. Rear park sensor delete may be the only mod left. I may get the clean one and smooth it and paint it.

 

Niiiiiiiiiice.. Definitely the best thing you could have done that doesn't include repainting the hood. I love that you do all these mods in your own garage at 2am.

 

When the family is sleeping, the mod ninja takes over.

 

Lovin it.... great job and looks about 150% better than with the leaper. Thanks for posting!

 

Quality solution EXEPAT. I have those growlers on both of my front quarter panels. they just look like little silver circles in my pix, i'll have to take some detailed shots.

 

Spectacular! One of the best looking cars I've ever seen - any brand! Congrats.

 

You made your growler badges the same way using the ones from a grille? If so, respect, or in other words "Oh, James!"

Thanks. Wouldn't go that far on a sub-$10k car, but I appreciate the compliment and your enthusiasm

 

Can you even see out the window lol! But your jag is pretty sweet.

 

Looks much nicer than a 10K car. It has the look and feel of a Mercedes AMG type car with a jag personality.

I get to see a fair share of BMW and Mercedes modded cars around here and yours definitely stands out. Usually the 10k priced cars are the Japanese ones and yours blows away any Japanese modded one I've seen.

Great job!

 

I ordered the S-type grill badges like the one you have on your leaper-delete, broke off the tabs, then sanded the back. The badges have an insubstantial curve to them that matched the front quarter-panels 'molded shape' perfectly! It looks as if they belong there. I always admired the diminutive 'Lincoln crosses' on the new MKX and MKS quarter panels & decided it would be a nice subtle upgrade to the x-type. I'll take some detailed pix soon.
I too, assiduously agree that the X-Type is a beautiful vehicle (designed by Ian Callum BTW) with fantastic lines. One of my favorite cars I have owned. I love that one can acquire them so affordably, it allows for plenty of money to upgrade them with! I recently installed a black gloss dash kit that matches the black interior and carbon fiber trim quite well, and am planning on removing all of the door guards on the body so the panels are completely flat. This will likely require filling and repainting much of the Jag....

 

Nice work on this mod, the front end looks much cleaner. I agree with some posts above, why not try taking off the eye lids?

 

Because I like my eyelids. They are the only angry/sleepy ones I've ever seen.

 

I need to tint my windshield.. Would probably help during our 1000 degree heat waves out here

 

Looks good. Although the hood would look much cleaner shaved and filled, this is an excellent cheaper alternative. Better than having the redundant leaper.