VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Electrical - 6 volt 38 horn

I have been told that the horn on my car i9s not original. My question is what is the overall length of the horn supposed to be?

This is the horn on my 38.

Tiny, your horn is not correct for a 1938. It is a 1933-1936 Standard horn. The 1937-1939 production horn has a round back. Chevrolet refered to it as a "spherical back cover".

John MAY be reffering to the accessory dual trumpet horns which were a different length each year, 1937, 1939 and 1939,
Would have to see a picture of his horn/horns.

Here's a picture of my horn.

That is from a 1953-1954 truck.
The correct horn is about the length of Tinys but has a round back like your short horn.
If your car also has the accessory dual horns it should not have the another horn.

Thanks Gene, Why would they call them town an country horns. The dual horns are loud for the country but not for use in the city. Think I have a NOS horn switch that switches the horns from the single to the town & country horns. Wouldn't the car come standard with the single horn and the town & country horns be installed by the dealer? I don't think the dealer would remove the single one. I'm glad to know that mine has a 53-54 truck horn. now I need to find an original one. Thanks for you feed back.

John

As I told you before - Town and Coutry horns (actually called City and Country by Chevrolet) wre a dealer installed accessory FOR 1939 ONLY.
The accessory duo horns were a dealer installed accessory for 1938 and when they were installed the single production manifold mounted WAS REMOVED. THERE WAS NO CITY/cOUNTRY SWITCH used or available in 1938.
The 1939 dou (dual trumet horns looked very different from the 1938 version) and were painted gray, not black.

Okay Gene, I will not mount the single horn and leave the switch off. I will also paint my "Match Horns" as they were called in the accessories for the 1938 Chevrolet pamphlet. I can always change it if the judges think different. Thanks for saving me time and money to search for a different one.

Thanks for that Gene. It was on the car when I pulled it out of the barn. I love the sound it makes. It's almost an exact match to the Roadrunner Beep/Beep horn.

Tiny, My '37 has what I believe is the original horn. It looks very similar to yours except that it has the rounded back that Gene was refiring to. It also sounds like the "beep beep" of the road runner. ;-)

Tiny,
The horn on my '35 Standard has the flat(ish) back like yours. It is 11 inches long. In your photo, the horn looks like it might be a bit shorter. There was an Autolite horn that was very similar to the '33-'35 Standard horn. Have you seen any brand name on your horn?

Mike

I think it's on the back Mike. I'll have to go out to the garage and look.

Mike, it's a DELCO-REMY. I wasn't there when the car was bought but I'm fairly sure of it's history. I'm the third owner and 40 year friend of the second owner. The original owner was a family friend of the second owner. I'm fairly confident the horn was on the car when it left the dealership in April 1938.

Tiny, did you check the length of the horn? I'm just curious.

Mike

I didn't but I can. I'd guess it's pretty close to 10". I'll go out to the garage and see how close my guesstimator is.

Edit: I went out and laid a tape on it. I discovered why I keep grabbing the wrong size socket. I need to have my eyeball recalibrated. It measured 7 and 1/4 inches.

On 1935 and 1936 models, perhaps others, the horn mounts with a bracket on the front two bolts that the intake and exhaust together. This location is farther back than the tab on the intake manifold, as was used on the 216 engine. A longer horn could be used in this location.

Mike

That is correct.