• Mod: Dixie Air Horns

• Time required: 2-3 hours

• Cost: $60 USD

• Supplier: JC Whitney

As a kid, I always thought air horns were neat and although I have aged significantly, my wife will tell you that at times my maturity is questionable. Thus, the purpose of this modification is just to get a laugh. And since much of my childhood was spent in TV land watching the Dukes of Hazzard, a Dixie horn was  my only option . They're supposed to be 118 decibels and here's what they sound like: 

• Dixie Horn Outside MP3 - from outside the car

• Dixie Horn Outside Wav

• Dixie Horn Outside (QuickTime)

• Dixie Horn Inside (QuickTime) - from inside the car, windows rolled up

Step 1: Remove Front Bumper Cover There is very little room in the engine compartment for aftermarket accessories definitely not for 5 trumpet horns and compressor.  Luckily, what I wanted to do was done before and after searching at ClubB5, I found inspiration from JonBoy who fabricated a mounting bracket and installed his air horns on the metal sub-bumper.  I also found that HermanH had detailed instructions on how to remove the front bumper cover in his post for a APR Snub Mount Installation.  Note: The trickiest part about the whole process is getting the cover past the hood release T-handle. Once you wiggle (and gently force) past it, everything is a breeze.
Step 2: Mount the Horns The first picture shows everything mounted in position with some temporary wiring so that I could hear the horns. I didn't really want to drill any permanent holes and I don't have the equipment (or the skills) to fabricate any custom pieces so I just used zip ties to hold everything in place.  I'm not worried about the actual horns because they're really light, but the compressor is much heavier. I used numerous zip ties and it seemed very stable the way that I had it. I'll check it again in a week and see how it's holding up. The other pictures show the horns in position after I painted them black and tidied up.
Step 3: Install the Wiring I followed the wiring diagram included with the air horns and connected the ground wire from the compressor to the ground wire (brown) on the factory horns.
Since I had easy access to the factory horns I decided to upgrade them at the same time.
One more wire comes from the compressor to the horn relay inside the car. The simplest way for me to do this without making any permanent holes was to run the wire under the left headlamp and then going up and following the hood release cable.  The entrance point is through the hole in the driver's door. This area does get splashed by water but I was able to fit the grommet back on pretty tightly. There is a plastic lip that helps prevent water from getting in and I used some silicone sealer around the wire to be extra safe. The wire comes out near the hood release. You'll have to remove the panel to see it. The hole is covered by a foam disk.
I hung the horn relay with a zip tie near the other relays behind the fuse panel. To gain access, you have to remove the lower dash panel under the steering wheel. Also will also see under there a power panel with four terminals. There are 3 red wires and 1 black wire. I connected to the black wire so that there is only power to the air horns when the ignition is on. This is how the regular horn works.
The wires for the switch are simple. You can put the wires in from behind on the passenger side. (If you peek inside behind the switch you can see a hole.)
Finished Results There's an opening on the air compressor to add some oil. I used some good multipurpose household oil and squirted it in while the horns played. I didn't think it sounded that loud but then I remembered that I had ear plugs in--my neighbors must have been really impressed!!! After putting the bumper cover back on, you can't really tell that there's anything there at all. Everything works great and there's no rattling so it seems like the zip ties are holding up well.