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

Hey @redzula you gotta horn in that rig?

 

I have always loved the older 6 volt trumpet horns from the 30's and 40's.
This double set of tuned horns was sent to a H.A.M.B. kid in Kansas for his doodle bug project, super loud and crisp and clear, they came off of a vintage IHC school bus.



I kept this one for myself, its a single 24" long, 6 volt trumpet horn, scored this one at the Portland swap meet a few years back for the price of $10.00, and this one is super loud when connected to a 12 volt system.

 

Picked up at end of a small local swap meet for .25 cents, cleaned up, adjusted and worked great. Screen in neck to prodect the diaphram. Don't know what it was off, no name on it. Mounted on frame behind front crossmember. On 12V it is loud.

 

Years ago the popular choice was musical air horns, they plated tunes like Dixie & La Cucaracha and were extremely loud, they were probably at their height during the Resto Rod era. HRP

 

Worked for a Dodge dealer in the early 80's when Chrysler almost folded. They were cleaning out the parts warehouses and offering the parts at bargain basement prices. One part was the Beep Beep horns. All the young guys at the dealership had them on their cars.

 

Mine have the originals in place. Ahhooogah!!

 

My 53 ford had a stock horn with 12 bolts threw it. Loved it. The current cars will get something similar.

hows that bike horn sound?

 

I remember the Dixie air horns.

 

I pulled a pair of two note horns out of a junkyard Cadillac 20 years ago.
Compact and loud.

 

Nothing like the sound of late 50s gm full size horn

 

I've got horns in both the Stude and the 38 Chevy, I parted out four Studebakers to build the 53 and not one had a horn that worked, I found some late model horns on a truck in the salvage yard, they are "OK". The 38 has 57 Chevy horns, hanging horns on old cars isn't as easy as late model cars, the steering column was a combination of 40 Pontiac and a piece of tubing from maybe a 50 Pontiac. The wheel was a 40 Pontiac unit and it had plastic "push buttons" on the spokes and those had disintegrated a long time ago. I c ut some small pieces of oak to replace the plastic (matches the dash) and cleaned up the wheel, fixing all of the cracks and now I have what a friend called a school bus steering wheel.

 

Adding the wood to the steering wheel looks as if it's done at the factory, very nice work. HRP

 

My Ford got a pair, (horns,......... not balls or tits), first thing out of the chute. This little interlude I'm in right now allowed me to stop long enough to order another pair from gearworks. They should be on the way right now.

 

If you don't have an original horn, don't need the look of a trombone, and don't have much space, the 80's GM hi/lo horn combo found on mid/full size RWD GM cars makes a pretty good replacement.
IIRC Ford used FIAMM horns during the same era, another compact design.
Replaced the horn on wifes OT Mazda with one from a S-10 as the original 'beep' horn got no respect.
Felt like Moses in that car after.

Even the newer GM/Ford truck horns are wimpy sounding.

 

My friend has a ah ooo gah horn on his 40 Ford. I think it is a 6 volt horn and his car is 12 volt. It is quite loud and sounds sorta wierd as you would imagine it's turning too fast. Well it is a real attention grabber, but the funniest thing I ever saw was- Once we were following him as he passed a grazing field full of cows. He hit that horn and -I swear- those cows jumped like they had been hit with 40,000 volts. All 20 or so of them! If I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't believe it! Looked like a cartoon or something! Makes me laugh again just thinking about it!

 

i like old ahooga horns. For a while in the 20's dodges were 12 volt. wonderful ahooga horns

 

This is one I found online. It has the right look to go in the engine room of my Chevy truck as soon as I get around to figuring out a mounting bracket.
The PO must have been too lazy to polish the real brass because it's been sprayed with gold paint.
It looks suspiciously like it could have been grafted on from a bugle. (?)

 

You can't go wrong with 4 mid 80's Cadillac 4-tone horns. Ear drum busters!!! Hard to find, but finally got mine off Ebay.

 

I had to get creative on the roadster's horn, fenderless car and I didn't want to look at it. So I did this.
Mounted a very loud bike horn behind the apron, reshaped the center and cut it to fit the 36 horn grill.

It's tiny and shiny and looks like it belongs there.

 

I have an 89 Sedan Deville setting in the shed that the horns will wake the dead!! No kidding!! Multiple local kids have used it at prom.

 

Best horn for clarity and loudness of sound at a reasonable price that I have found is a Harley Davidson horn. The horn without the chrome cover is about 35 bucks and can be heard over most engine and road noise. I find that I need a horn most at traffic lights to let the car ahead of me know the light has changed.

 

Mechanic to customer, "I couldn't fix your brakes so I made your horn louder."

 

Have our Ahooga horn mounted under passenger floorboard. Fun to scare new passengers and little kids at shows. Also, like someone else mentioned, makes deer turn and run hard in opposite direction.

 

I worked at a ford dealership. The body shop repaired a mid eighties Cadillac . They put some horns on it from our parts department. The car owners first complaint was "does not have Cadillac sounding horn". Its hard to beat three or four tone Cadillac horns if there is room.

 

And it's time to quit texting and drive! HRP

 

And don't forget (on gm anyhow) if you install an internal regulated alternator with original horns, you need a horn relay set up for that or your horn will go off.

 

When I dis-assembled my truck I found it had three horns, two factory installed hood mounts and a small trumpet in front of the radiator. I took the factory horns off and put 12-volts to it and got a sick muffled burb. On inspection I found dead mice blocking the flow, instead of cleaning them out the farmer just added another, which I have left on the truck. It has three horns to match the three headers (see Exhaust Tips 101)

 

I've always installed horns on my hotrods, and always get them at the junkyard. Factory horns are all better quality than aftermarket, and cheap. The last horns I bought for my '39 Chev I got off a Ford Crown Vic and they are actually a two horn set mounted on a single bracket. I planned on using just one, but they fit behind the grille as a pair, so I went with both.
These are extremely loud horns that get people's attention! I love them!

 

I have 2 horns on one bracket off a 2000's f150. I found them at a yard under the battery tray. I put both of them behind the grill on my 56 F100. You can't see them but you sure can hear them. Funny how bigger vehicles had more authoritative sounding horns- Think Cadillac vs. VW beetle back in the day....

 

The Banchee motorcycle is very loud. HRP