Lofi said:
How did you colour the grill, side vents and letters?
Fender trim (10 secs per side):
Slide a blunt thin flat bladed knife between the he side trim and the wing. Start top corner by the door end. It is held in by four delicate clips. One broke on each side but a dabbed a bit of glue on the back when re-attaching for safety. One of the instant resin repair bond glues you get in a DIY/harware shop is perfect.
Grille (abour 30 secs for the grille and 1 minute for each of the silver trim strips):
As described in the handbook to replace a bulb in the headlights, I popped the four clips along the top of the grille/scuttle panel and then gripping each bottom corner in turn, pulled/jerked carefully each corner from it retaining clip on the bumper. Experience tells me you can exert alot more force than you think before the grille is damaged. To save spraying costs I then removed the two silver grille panels from the black surround (less to paint. If you are doing this then the two ends and bottom of the silver grille trim is clipped in and the top lightly glued and bonded so you will hear the odd crack as the two pieces of trim seperate - just go carefully. When I put it back together I just put a couple of dabs of superglue type glue where the old bonding stuff was but it isn't really necessary as the clips hold the trim in place. The LR badge was heated out using a hairdryer but damaged beyond repair (I will replace with the one off the boot) but I think it would be possible to leave in place and mask if I were doing it again.
Letters:
Normally a hairdryer to heat the letter/badge and then twist off or pop off with say a thin piece of card/plastic scraper or fishing line. In the case of the LR, the SPORT and the SD4 HSE badges/letters twisted off. I heated the LR badge and twisted. The bonnet letters just popped off without heating and a thin plastic scrapper behind made of rigid laminated card (I don't recommend with colours other than white or silver as you may need to polish minor scratches afterwards and this will not work on Fords, BMW, Mercs and Skodas as they have alot more "stick" to their letters/badges).
To get the alignement right when replacing letters I use the following method:
1. Tear a strip of masking tape and place flush under and above the letter.
2. Using a pen mark the alignement of letter on the masking tape.
3. Heated the letter for about 20 secs on full power with a hairdryer.
4. Pop the letter off.
5. Use a dab of meths/alcoholic wipe and a cloth to remove any residue of 3M tape from the old letter on the bodywork.
6. Align and stick new letter.
7. Repeat.
NB: Put the new letters in the right order in the casr/on floor before attachement or you might end up with a VERYDISCO:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3095041/Porsche-911-owner-distraught-gets-100-000-motor-garage-renamed-PORSHCE.html
As I said the I removed the letters without heat by sliding a piece of laminated card behind each one. I was then able to rub the 3M tape residue off before dabbing bit of meths over the are and sticking the new ones on. Once you have done the first letter and get the hang of it then it takes about 1 minute per letter to do.
No one has yet noticed that the DISCOVERY letters on the back are from a DS4
(about a tenner in postage on flee bay). They are slightly bigger and thicker than the originals and seem to have alot more "stick" than the originals.
I didn't want anything radically different, just that it looked a bit more co-ordinated as JLR seem to have a habit of 2 or 3 different trim colours and 3 or 4 different badge fonts/colours on their cars which I personally find very irritating (but accept most are quite content with). As I said it's all personal preferance so no criticism inferred of those who prefer the OE look.
