Richmond is only 1-1/2 hrs. or so depending upon traffic & such. I can get to Fredericksburg in a mere 3-3-1/2 hours, again depending upon traffic & such. :biggrin5:
So I was bored and decided to remove the front bumper cover to see if I could find a home for the WOLO Bad Boy 419 horn... 1st attempt seemed like an obvious winner until I did a test fit by putting the bumper cover back on & completely forgot about the turn signal: 2nd attempt was to try to make it sandwiched between the a/c condenser and lower grill of the bumper cover, but that was a definite no-go. 3rd attempt is shown here: It's held firmly in place via ziptie at the moment, but I'm thinking there's got to be a way to attach some sort of bracket to either the battery box or DDM CAI box. Thoughts?
Today is all about test fitting...I'll probably do the actual wiring sometime this week or next weekend.
I think the zipties are pretty good. For a touch of elegance try some of my favorite tape. :smilewinkgrin:
I took a look at mine (also an MC w/ aerokit) and I'm surprised you didn't have room below the bumper carrier between the lower grille and the condenser. That horn must be bigger than it looks to me in your pics. While you think about mounting it keep in mind if you can't get it out of the way somewhere you'll want it to be fairly accessible and easily removable (that includes simple disconnection for your wiring) in case you need something in that area repaired or replaced later.
4th attempt is further back into the engine bay: 5th attempt (pre-bumper test fit): 5th attempt (bumper fits!):
The 2nd attempt (no pics, though) had me remove the black lower grill from the aero kit so I could put the horn in place. The curvature of the lower grill needed at least another 1/2", plus I had the dilemma of trying to attach a bracket to the metal bumper thingy (technical, eh!) PLUS make sure the unit didn't get pushed back into the condenser. I may try it via ziptie (hubby is back from Canada, so now I have an extra pair of hands) before I put everything back together for the night.
In your first picture that looks good. Except I think locating it there will complicate oil changed. The filter is right under there. The 5th place looks like it will work best. HONK HONK !!!
So, after replying to Steve's post, I decided to revisit the 2nd Attempt... Hubby was too busy unpacking from the trip, so it was me, myself & I again. I used a LOT of zipties to find the perfect spot on the aerokit bumper and it was a SUCCESS! The final installation will most likely require the use of black piano wire or black spiderwire because the vertical appearance of the black zipties is too obvious due to the width of the zipties. I'm going to see if I can locate a Stebel Deep Bass (or similar deep-toned) horn to compliment the Bad Boy. My concern with installing the Bad Boy in the location of the passenger OEM horn is that the sound would be instantly directed against a solid surface a mere 1" or so from the horn and would result in a muffled sound and/or sound redirection back into the engine back. Installing the horn(s) against the lower grill of the aerokit bumper will allow the sound to be directly forward to open air. Of course, it also means that rain & such may also pose a problem, so I'm going to probably use plastic glue to put some fine-mesh screening material over the horn openings to prevent/reduce debris buildup. The mounting piece extends almost 1" from the back of the horn and there's maybe 3/8" space between the mount & the a/c condenser, so I'm going to see if I can use a grinding wheel or cutting torch to remove the mounting piece. After that, the chrome pieces will need to be painted matte black so the horn isn't quite as noticeable through the lower bumper grill. In the meantime, I need to figure out how to do the wiring. I bought 12' of 12g red & 12g black wire, along with 12g female disconnects and a 30amp add-a-circuit which came with 12g yellow wire. Now to find the OEM horn relay so that I can tap into it since I'm going to keep the OEM horns until they completely die. I'm guessing that the wiring will be no more than 5' in length; do I need to be concerned with a voltage drop? Hopefully it will all come together by next weekend...
The mounting piece is a 3-sided bracket, so when I do the oil changes, all I would need to do is move it up & off the bolt...plus, since the horn has quick connects on the bottom, I can very easily disconnect the wiring and move the entire horn out of the way. I'm going to do a live test-fit in each of the locations to see which is loudest vs. most muffled and then go from there.
That's good that it could be removed easily for an oil change. You are going to be the Queen of HONK when you are done with this project. :cornut:
• Erica, The Stebel Nautilus is the original, made in Italy by the same people that make those sexy sounding Ferrari horns. I think I bought my first one from BikerHiway a motor cycle accessories dealer. I have had both and side by side they look the same and sound about the same, nice twin-tone sound. Currently using WOLO’s BAD BOY because they were on sale at Harbor Frieght and my Stebel Nautilus had crapped out. The Bad Boy and Stebel are basically the same dual tone air horn. Since the Bad Boy showed up on the market after the Stebel I think it is either a knock off copy or manufactured under license from Stebel. • As they say MADE IN ITALY! BEWARE OF IMITATION! The MINI sure is tight isn't it.
Can another pair of eyes look this over? http://www.wolo-mfg.com/419%20english.pdf I'm installing the Bad Boy so that it works in conjunction with the OEM horns. Not even sure what the next (first!) step would be for the wiring aspect of this little project. I want to install a 2nd Bad Boy horn, so what will I need to do?