Technical Horn/ horns a often overlooked item on a hot rod

A few years ago, I got into a horn buying kick. I've bought a bunch of NOS horns from that auction site, from 2 sets of Sparton original, all metal, adjustable, hi/lo, 6 volt horns, to 24 inch long trumpeters. Toss in a couple of "Bull" horns, various factory car horns, a couple of older metal Aahooga horns, and some Tri-Five Chevrolet horn sets. Talking about this makes me horny!!! I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I used to have a Road Runner horn, transplanted it into a number of OT cars over the years. People got a kick out of seeing that purple horn with the cartoon character under the hood!

 

A horn is important both for safety and to complete the car. It’s not finished without a horn.

My father and grandfather both liked horns, my dad had a 70’s mopar with the roadrunner horn and a 60’s mustang with the horn that sounded like a horse.

I spend too much time selecting the perfect horn for my cars.
I once filled a 24 bottle beer box with horns from the junk yard and spent an afternoon testing them to find what I wanted

The woody wagon has a big car sounding horn while my sport car has a very European sounding horn.


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I Just keep my old 6 volts horns then convert the car over to 12 volts. Damn those suckers are loud.. almost like an air horn.

 

A legal requirement here, too.

Here we've got minibus taxis, which are called taxis though they are actually small private buses in that they run on fixed routes, can't be directed to a specified destination, and are shared by different passengers who get on and off at different points along the way. Their drivers give quick jabs on the horn to attract the attention of potential passengers walking on the sidewalk, despite the practice being technically illegal. It means that horns used for their intended purpose are likely to get lost amid all the taxis, unless they are audibly different, especially as their intended purpose is often directed at the opportunistic insousiance of the taxi drivers. (For instance, they can't get to the nearside kerb from the nearside lane. In order to get to the nearside kerb it is necessary to pull out onto the wrong side of the road and then cut across four lanes of traffic.)

But be that as it may.

During the '50s many French car manufacturers had two horns, a polite ville horn and a bellicose campagne horn, with a switch between them. The constraints imposed by minibus taxis notwithstanding, I've always liked this idea. Simultaneously, enquiries into weird suspension and a general desire to reduce drastically the electrical systems in a car have converged into the idea of having lots of stuff run off engine-driven on-board air with, say, a 5-gallon reservoir, and horns are surely an obvious part of that. Starting the engine unfortunately isn't. But air horns are a natural, and zebra-finch-versus-rogue-elephant can't be more than a two-way air valve.

 

on my 52 I have the original 6volt horn now on 12 volt it is quite loud. I'm happy with it for now. Always like those Dukes of Hazard Dixie playing horns though!!

 

I put a Roadrunner horn in my '40.
I'm thinking of using a Harley horn in the '32.
They are easy to find at swap meets, small, cheap, 12V, and they have a nice chrome cover.

 

HRP I have always had horns (no not that type) on my hotrods, the last one my 36 Willys sedan had an original 6 volt Klaxon mounted on the radiator to firewall x brace, so I left it there, cleaned it up and used it. Turns out it is an "A-OO-GHÅ" horn. It sounded great and loud.

Pat

 

I use a vintage Klaxon on my roadster, very loud and has that classic sound. Gets peoples attention.

 

Hello,

As teenagers, we tried all sorts of things to make our hot rods stand out. Sure, a powerful motor, some chrome wheels, new flashy paint, custom upholstery, and different levels of lowering or doing the Cal Rake mode were some of the things we did, as did others. It was teenage experimentation time and a lot of fun.

We got used to hearing my dad’s big Buick sedan horns as he would roll into the driveway after his drive home from work. If the Impala was in the primary spot, he would beep his horn, stop his motor and leave the Buick on the concrete pad. If we were going out in the Impala, we had to move it out to the front driveway and put his Buick in the primary spot. We knew that in order to have the Impala in the garage after our usage, it was back to moving both cars in and out of the driveway, again.

As teenagers, experimentation was fun and sometimes we found out that a little change would do wonders for the cars and notoriety.

Jnaki

One of the funniest things was the discovery of the horn system on our GM cars, the 57 Bel Air Hardtop and the 58 Impala. It is a classic story that brought results to make our fast high school cars more notoriety when driving into the drive-in restaurant parking lot for all to see and HEAR.
1962


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Hello,

When we were looking for something else to make our cars stand out was changing the horns on our hot rods. Some of the stock horns were of course, stock, like the 4 door family sedan with a car load of teenage girls. So, the hot rods needed something different. (Manly? Just something different was necessary.) We angled up the horns and that just made the sound worse.

So, it was back to the experiments. My friend's front yard and driveway sounded like a bunch of teenage seals boasting their vocal cords. One of our friends had a long loud horn from a big truck that his dad had lying around…that was too loud. Another neighbor had a tank of air and a huge truck horn, that was really loud and not for street use.

Now, we were working on the motor of the 57 Chevy Bel Air and one of us happened to drop a Pendleton shirt on top of the stock horn. My friend was trickster and waited until I was under the hood, leaning over the radiator area, when he honked the horn. Of course I hit my head on the work light when I jerked back. We all laughed at that action. (Who hasn’t done that to a friend or nemesis?)

But, one interesting thing happened at that moment, the horn was loud, but slightly muffled. It was a different sound and both of us looked at each other and our eyes lit up. A new sound from that covered stock horn. The other one was uncovered. Now, we both stepped back and beeped the horn again. It was a different tone, so we covered the other horn and beeped again. This time it was too muffled. So, only one horn was covered. To make sure we could have a distinct horn sound, we stuffed a shop rag into the horn curve and put a piece of tape over it. (It still had the slight stock sound…)

Jnaki

Now, the horn had a very distinct sound, muffled, but loud enough to be heard out on the street from the garage. So, more experiments in the next several minutes, with both being uncovered, one stuffed, both stuffed, both stuffed loosely, etc. The best new sound came from a combination of one stuffed well and the other slightly stuffed. We even moved the direction of the horns facing the grille directly for more new sound.

That made the new sound for this 1957 Chevy Bel Air Hardtop. When we cruised into the local drive-in parking lot and beeped the horn, all eyes moved over to the 57 Chevy, as if something new rolled into the lot for the show and tell sessions.

No fuss, no bother, no cost/but effort, just a couple of teenagers with extra time on our hands (and not spending any money), for another oddball upgrade to our hot rods.

The 1957 Christmas tree delivery hot rod, circa 1961-62.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/christmas-friday-art-show-2018.1133544/#post-12875299