Project: Clax-ON (Extra Horn Rack)

[univision]

Project: Clax-ON

Intentions: Create an add-on consisting of multiple car horns mounted on a single rack in series, making a louder horn.
Reason: Didn't find the stock horns to be loud enough.


These are the stock horns.







Below them I have found a significant amount of space. This is the area right next to the lower grill of the tC. Perfect for placing more horns, and the rack can be attached to the metal support beam in front of the radiator with 2 screws.







Horns I picked up at a junkyard. With entrance fee I ended up paying $14.







These are the tools I started off with.







Placed the horns on the ground to get a measurement of space that they'll take up.







Found a piece of metal on my old go-kart.







Its perfect.







Preping the horns by flattening out the vibration bars with a mallet. Brushed the bolts, and applied WD-40 to them and their nuts.







Placed each horn in the table vice and tested to see if they work.







Weighed the small horns.







And then the horn set.







Arranged the horns on the bar according to their weights. The difference in weight of the 2 smaller horns was arbitrary therefore they wouldn't upset the balance. I used a few 3/8 bolts and nuts with some washers and a lock washer.







Cut the bar.







Filed it down so it wouldn't be sharp. Don't wanna accidently cut yourself or worse, scratch up the car.







Here I performed a simple test to see how the balance was.







Here I was holding the rack by hand to check how much clearance I was getting.
Note: The attachment piece was a beta that I ended up scrapping due to its poor design.







Had a few inches of clearance.







This is the new and improved attachment article I came up with. Much sturdier than the previous one.







Swoll.







Another test of clearance this time with the new rack joint. I end up tweaking the angle later on in the project.







Schematic I made to aid me in the wiring process so I wouldn't screw up and have to resolder stuff.







12V Relay lying around in my electronics bin. I believe it was from a different car's headlight system.







A few connectors I decided to use. The reason for the connectors is so just in case the relay goes haywire I can always easilly replace it.







A tad too small...







A bit of tweeking and...







Presto! I sure as hell didn't want to goto the store and spend my money.







I do everything color coded to make it simple. Blue ones are for tripping the relay and the red ones will supply juice to the horns.







More tweeking, this time for the horns.
Note: It'll be much easier if you're not in a hurry when you're at the junkyard. That way you could cut the wires leading to the horns and save the connectors that are already attached to them.







Everything is good to go.







Following the schematic I began my soldering and attachment of connectors. Please ignore my awesome soldering skills.







Not included on the schematic was this toggle switch I decided to add into the circuit. The main reason why its there is for demonstration purposes.







It looks cool too.







Cleaning an area with rubbing alcohol so I can glue the relay alongside the switch.







Glue gun was nowhere to be found so I used a blow torch to slowly heat the stick.







Here's the relay all glued up right by the switch.







Wires attached to switch and relay. I decided to use a splicer for the horn wire and routed the (+) wire to the relay trip connector.







Picture from above to show where the wires are going.







I ended up routing them near the bumper and through the reinforcement sections near the battery.







View to show where the wires are protruding. Right next to the battery.







Attachment of negative wires to the battery terminal. I ended up adding a few washers and wrapped the wire in-between them.







Positive terminal.







Reinserted top front grill. The wires aren't very noticeable even with their bright colors.







Horns are very difficult to see. This is a close-up of the lower front grill.













The project was a success. In the near future however I'm going to install a 30A fuse to the wire leading from the positive terminal on the battery, in case **** goes down. The toggle switch is great for showing interested friends the difference between the new horn system and the stock ones.

The horn rack uses between 23-28 amps at 14 volts = 325-392 watts.

Total cost: $14

Soon to come:
Video displaying the difference in sound.
dB meter readings of the before and after.

[navylife59]

When you get your vid posted we can put this in the To-Do section. Let me get my earplugs in first.

[univision]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE4WUqn9bQw

Haven't gotten my dB meter in the mail yet...

[navylife59]

Good vid. Need to smile at the camera more. You might put a momentary switch in the circuit fused between the + terminal of the battery and to the relay 12 volt activation coil terminal (85 or 86). This would allow you to sound the horns from under the hood. Save you the hassle of going back and forth on your demonstration. That would not sound your OEM horns unless you tapped into those with the relay.

Good work!