Well being the idiot I am, I decided it would be great idea to tug on my hood ornament to see if it moved like the Cadillac hood ornament use to. It moved alright. By detaching from the base. I don't think I pulled too hard on it, but then again sometimes I don't know my own strength as they say. It looks like it was set there with epoxy or something previously. My question is has anyone successfully attached it back to the base without buying a new one? Any idea JB weld would hold it to the base mount?

The thing has pretty good weight to it. I rather just buy a new one if there isn't a safe way to reattach it. The last thing I would want is to be driving 70 mph down the highway and this thing find its way through either my or another drivers windshield.

I guess until I replace it I'll enjoy the weight reduction. Haha.

 

As far as I know, there isn't a way of reattaching it to that base without epoxy or jb weld. I think fully cured jb weld should hold it as long as it's not hit or caught on something.
The base it is attached to is held on by a large plastic nut under the hood and the threaded part of that base is plastic also

BE CAREFUL tightening that up. I've broken one because I tightened it too much and at that point the whole leapers was useless.

There might be another version of the leapers where two Phillips screws are used to hold the "Jaguar" leaper to that base that's left on your hood and see if you have that version.
My original that broke had the Phillips screw version.

EDIT: Looking at your picture again it looks like you have the two corresponding holes for the screws...

 

Aren't they held in place with a heavy spring so they can move, the spring attached to the hook you can see on the bottom of the mount in the photo above?

I swear mine moves.

All modern hood ornaments I've seen are made to move/give and are spring mounted.

If my recollection about a spring is correct, and yours was glued, it makes me think the spring mount was broken off at some point and someone "fixed" it with glue??

Am I wrong?

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Pedestrian safety concerns/legislation have more or less eliminated hood ornaments in the UK. Those which remain e.g. Rolls Royce have quite clever mechanisms for retracting the ornament out of harms way upon contact. Might be quite difficult to find a balance between attachment being strong enough to avoid it coming off and through a windscreen, and yet detachable to avoid impaling a pedestrian. Maybe a new one is the safest bet?

 

No you are absolutely correct.
I found one on ebay for $30. Bought it. Paying that price is worth it to me just for the peace of mind of knowing it won't fly off and go through my windshield. I know the windshield won't be cheap. Completely agree with countyjag.

 

This brings up another point. Why are there no cars with hood ornaments in the British Isles? I was over there several years and noticed that. I was thinking it might be because of the laws concerning pedestrians is different that in the US. And maybe the pedestrians don't like being skewered by hood ornaments like leapers.

 

Honestly If I got skewered by a leaper I would die a happy man.

 

Just reattached the new one. Now the leaper is back leading the way. The one I bought on ebay brand new for $30 is a really good copy. I can't tell the difference between this one and the factory one that was on the car. Aside from the price. Guess we'll see how it holds up in the long run.

 

Looks great!

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