Buell Air Horns

Rick Simpson,

Air horns have been available on Auburns and Cords since 1929. You could order single or double trumpets. I imagine the singe would have sounded odd by itself. A small compressor was provided. On the late Cord it was driven by the generator belt. Space was tight but the compressor was very small, about the size of a small can of coffee. In the USA, Buell was the brand east of the Rocky Mountains, out west they installed Grover brand. You could have the horns mounted outside or under the hood.

I scared a train engineer to death once. I was at a railroad crossing in Glenn Petersen's V-12 Auburn. The engineered honked at me and I let him have it with the Auburn air horns. He thought sure that another train was about to hit him head on. What a look!

These horns are covered by Accessories Bulletin #2. dated February 2, 1937 concerning the placement when ordering. It is signed by V. C. Clark, Accessory Division.

Stan Gilliland

Hi! Some of you may know that my Cord 810 s/c phaeton went in to my friendly restorer's garage for a quick 3 day make-over paint job on June 5th. One might be mildly concerned when you realize that was June 5th 2005! I am very pleased! When I checked back two days later to view the progress, the car had been disassembled! Over the past year I have been presented with a bucket containing 250lbs of lead. The English wheel has been working overtime, fenders have lots of new panels, rust in places that aren't supposed to exist has been replaced with fresh steel etc. A self appointed committee decided my long, large, and loud Lucas electric external horns had to go! My chosen colour of paint...Duesenberg "lime" green... would not be suitable, and so on. The colour under consideration now is a very deep black cherry, using the most up to date paint methods. I'm very excited about the project!! and very happy!!
Yesterday, I found a pair of very long and large Buell air horns. Very similar to the ones on Charlie Fabians Cord, that he always blew for me and impressed/startled the neighbourhood. I have always believed these to be an official accessory, and to be shown in the accessory catalogue. I checked my library today and cannot find any such fact? Am I imagining this? Can someone advise me? I have been told that it might be very difficult to have these put on MY Cord. That it will require a full meeting of the self appointed restoration board! I was sure that as they are "Official Accessories" for the Cord, I would be able to convince them they should be allowed on the car.
Sometimes life is tough when you have friends helping! (The work being done is beyond belief! Ric. Cord driver for 60 years, owner for same period of time, in control a lot of the time, always happy!