Junkyard horns

I've read the post about the hella horns, they sounded loud but I wanted the deep, get the hell out of my way horn. Decided to do this one on the cheap, total project cost less then 10 bucks. Time cost was about 4 hours just because I kept screwing around trying to take the grill off.

So today I went junkyard hunting. When I got to my favorite spot, told them I was looking for a horn that said get out of the way, and not out of a Yaris. An Hour later came out with six horns. Four of them out of a mid 90's Cadillac, two out of an old Chevy Pickup. Only reason I ended up with GM was they were the closest ones to the front gate, and honestly six horns was MORE then enough to find two working. The whole lot cost me 5 bucks.

Took them home and proceeded to test various combination out of the six. Ended up using a vice to hold them to ground them both at the same time, and an extra battery that I had laying around the garage. On an aside the caddy horns were four different pitches, so if your looking for a easy way to find some horns to prank your buddies, go for the caddy. Ended up with a combination of the low tones out of the old chevy and caddy. I ended up bending the brackets and drilling out the threads of the horns. On the drivers side of my 97 I found two 5/16 holes that some new stainless steal lag bolts threaded nicely into, and with some lock washers are holding it fairly well. Should they fail I'll switch to a fine thread bolt and nut combo.

After ensuring that I could at least mount the horns without having to do major surgery, I took out my soldering gun and soldered together a wiring harness out of the ones I pulled from the yard. Since the wires are under the hood and exposed to the elements, I prefer this method just because it's more water resistant then quick connects.

Wiring harness complete the last test before snapping off my trucks whimpy little horn was to take the wire, which was the positive feed, and quickly attaching it to the positive side of the battery. It worked, ensuring that the horns were properly grounded on the side of the fender. Next came cutting the wire to the horn on the truck. Since toyota made a grill and clip smarter then this old boy I just took a sharp chisel I had laying around and cut the wire through the grill, leaving the old horn where it was. 6 extra feet of wire later I had it connected. One last trip to autozone for a 5 foot section of wire conduct protector ($4) to protect the wire from heat and rubbing against a hard surface and I was done.

All in all I'm pleasantly pleased with the outcome. It's not a Hella, nor is it the loudest. But when I honk the horn there's no doubt that it's gonna be my truck! I'll upload a video after a bit, give the neighbors some time to relax since I've been blasting horns all day.

And I have four other horns I can use to prank come April first!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofJOf5Km5jY

 

Bumb for a sweet mod! you should put this in the cheap mod thread

 

Thanks, went outside and got a short video. It sounds a little sweeter then when I was standing right next to it. Still better then the yaris.

 

Im looking for a fog horn. like the horns on tug boats

 

That'd be a cool party trick.