I want to install a leaper onto my bonnet. I know I can drill hole(s) but I saw a leaper that has adhesive tape. Did Jag ever mount hood ornaments with just adhesive tape?

 

Jaguar did NOT mount leapers to any US cars from the early to mid 60s until the X300 sedan.
The current US federal law, as I understand it, was that the leaper needs to be SPRING MOUNTED so as not to 'eviscerate' a pedestrian or other unfortunate if the car struck them and rolled them over the car.

Many individuals mount all sorts of things to their cars.

Adhesive tape would make the leaper both safer for the pedestrian and easier for the thief!!!

bob

 

Thanks motorcarman. I am concerned about the adhesive tape releasing the leaper as I am doing 80mph, well we all know what physics will require. I'm only aware of bolt-on leapers.

 

just wondering if you ever did this? Having the same predicament!

 

This was a one owner 94 model XJ40 that I bought a few years ago. It had the leaper on the bonnet (hood) but this had been fitted after market.
As far as I know and have observed XJ40s did not originally have a leaper

Leaper on the bonnet. Car is Arabian Red.

 

Beautiful car, Bill Mac! As Motorcarman said back in 2018 here, I know that the US cars did not have them from the factory, but most that were sold here had the leaper installed as a dealer-offered option. I prefer it, but some absolute purists don't, and as one who is normally a purist, I get it. Mine did have the leaper on it, but if I did buy one of the US models lacking it, my personal taste is that I probably wouldn't retrofit a leaper. Your model looks like a Sport (wheels and front air dam).

The safety issue is understandable, and must have contributed to the downfall in popularity of the hood ornament. Way back when, my cousin had a Nissan Sentra, and he had affixed a Lincoln Continental star on the hood....he's an engineer, but not sure if he had made it spring loaded. That would have been a nasty weapon in the wrong driver's hands. With lawsuits as they are these days here in the USA, I wouldn't bother with any modifications. The manufacturer wouldn't be liable for injury caused by nonstock modifications that somehow result in injury.

 

Got the colour wrong. It was Moroccan red.
The horse's name was "Buster". Chewed aerials and other assorted bits off cars. Also ate any cardboard cartons on hand.
The shed in the background was my den of iniquity where many Jags and other makes were revived and/or restored.