The Horn and Other Parts
Back to page 2
I bought a nice Hella horn for my Beetle about September or so to pass inspection here in New Jersey when my horn died. Then after I dropped off Schnitzel at the repair shop I found this original Bosch horn with screw terminals on eBay for sale. It came off of a late 1957 Beetle, and was said to work. No one was bidding on the poor thing so I got it for $6.00. I found it quite accidentally as I was not looking for a horn at the moment, I had given up on finding one. The best part of this horn is that all the crap you see on it is really just undercoating that chipped off very quickly and had protected the horn quite well. It was virtually rust free!
Here is the cover of the horn removed, all original screws came off easily. The only part that is in sad shape is the Bosch nameplate as you can see.
Inside the horn are two paper gaskets that need to be replaced. I just used paper gasket and cut new ones myself based on the originals for patterns.
Underneath the above part are more parts that I did not remove. The inside of the horn is in mint condition as you can see in the photo, complete with shiny paint. You can see one of the paper gaskets in place here. The other went on top of the lift out piece and under the cover piece.
Here is the freshly sanded cover next to the housing with all the undercoating chipped off, nameplate and the original horn bracket.
The cover primered and waiting for paint.
The case primered and waiting for paint.
All painted in gloss black and very very shiny. The Bosch logo still looks rather bad, but the horn itself turned out great. I tested it with Schnitzel's battery, I didn't expect the horn to work and I jumped out of my skin when it beeped loud enough to wake the dead! I am very happy with the way the horn turned out, it is correct for my early 1958 Beetle and Schnitzel will be proud he no longer has one of those new ones with the push-on connectors!
Another super clean part, here is my wiper assembly for Schnitzel. It was really filthy, but no repaint here, just a bit of cleaning on the satin black original paint and wiper motor housing inside and out.
Here are the luggage bars that mount on the hardboard on the back of the rear seat backrest. No, the rear seat backrest did not have vinyl on the backside originally, it had hardboard with these 4 metal strips attached!
How do you tell if your Wolfsburg crest and base are originals or a reproductions? Well its pretty easy, look at your base it should have a great big VW emblem on it, it is also a tad thicker aluminum than a reproduction. How about the crest? Turn it over. On the back of an original crest are the letters AUER on the left and NBG on the right. Also the 2 tabs are each divided in half so each tab is 2 tabs, not just one.
During the time Schnitzel was gone, all the parts at home were cleaned and put away. I had just finished the week before he was done and needed more to work on. On Valentine's Day 2004 we brought him back home with his welding repairs finished. Here his is in Clinton, NJ almost home. Doesn't he look happy?
Schnitzel is finally home and back with his buddies again, here he is about to be unloaded in our backyard near the Red Baron (Passat Syncro wagon). Ug. Look at the snow...
Go on to page 4
Body comes off the pan!

Or skip to:
Page 1 Page 2 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10
Home