Horn Coating, Painted or Plated Options

[DennisV]

Can anyone tell me what the original coating was for the horns? Most of the ones I have seen are painted...with overspray. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Thanks to a pointer in another thread, I have managed to get the ones from our 914-6 working again. Despite several searches, I've yet to find a resource that indicates the proper coating after stripping the cover and the diaphragm.

• 914-635-103-11: Horn - HELLA - 335 HZ
• 914-635-104-11: Horn - HELLA - 400 HZ

Ours prior to stripping didn't offer much evidence to guide me.

[wonkipop]

ah - ok @DennisV

then it is virtually the same as mine.
the rivetted ones are slightly later than the screw together ones.

here is mine. rivetted. 74 version.
its original.
best i can do, don't feel like unscrewing grilles etc.




most of the original black coating (paint) has been worn/reacted off but is still visible. its not road grime. i had it out about 3 years ago when i was recommissioning the car so took a close look at it then.

with the outer layer of paint worn off it looks grey colored. which is probably what most people are looking at today 50 years on thinking is galvanising?

back housing is from memory bakerlite plastic black. maybe pot metal but my memory is its bakerlite. could be wrong.

i did do a bit of a look on google. plenty of old horns for sale on samba.
most are dirt/weatherblasted to a rough grey color.
there is the odd one you can find that is for sale as an NOS part still with a box.
these vary. some are all black and some appear to be unpainted and silver.
its possible that there were variations.

def the one on mine back in 74 factory fresh had a black paint or black coating on it.
maybe even powdercoated?

most surprising thing is the metal itself shows no signs of corrosion on it.
a lot of the old ones for sale on samba also show no corrossion despite age.
which makes me think its an usual metal.
i came across some images of old horns for sale on samba that had a greenish oxidised surface tinge to them. thats a sign of high copper content in the metal (tin) itself.
which might explain why they don't corrode and why they would not need a galvanised coating.

i think a cold gal paint would look pretty good.
i don't think there is necessarily any strictly correct finish for them.
as i say, a bit of poking around on the samba seemed to turn up some slight differences.

it seemed you could get a special bosch klaxon horn with a different tone in europe as an option. possibly for autobahn lane clearing use? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)
these were similar in size and shape to the standard hella horns but had a different front cover grille. they appear to have been all black painted.