How to repair a broken weld on a 805b horn

[Elitopus1]

I just bought a pair of 805b horns. One of them came with known damage. The bottom middle cells are slightly pushed together, and the weld in the middle is broken.

Were these just tack welded together? How can I repair that section, and then match the original paint?

Here are two pics. Hopefully they are big enough. I think if you click on the pics they get bigger


IMG_9483.jpg
IMG_9482.jpg

I got a decent deal on the horns. 500$ for the pair, including factory 1"-1.4" reducers.

I can't believe how dead they are. They ring as much as a bag of sand. Lol

[Phil-G]

epoxy maybe? it would avoid heating the horn and melting the coating.

[BillWojo]

Take this with a grain of salt as I have never even seen a pair of these in real life.
I suspect that the strips running along all the cells is sweated on with solder, top, middle and bottom and than the shorter strips are added on top of them connecting both rows. If that is the case you may need to remove the vertical upright, carefully cut a 1" section from both cells on the bottom and replace that with a new section. Afterwards replace the vertical section.
Do you know any good radiator repair guys? They are good with working with this kind of stuff.
Done properly and repainted it should look like nothing ever happened.

BillWojo

[Elitopus1]

Good info guys. I didn't think about not melting the coating off. Also I had just assumed they were welded together.

There is a pair of multicells listed on ebay that says the horns have been "repaired" and welds are "tight". Wonder how they repaired those?
Shit, that pair just sold for 895$ plus freight charges

[BillWojo]

If you look at the joints in the pictures you can see spots were the solder is showing under the paint.
Somebody help me out here, wasn't there photo's of the Altec horn shop posted showing horns being built? Not the cast horns but the built up steel horns. Might get some clues there.
How you decide to repair them is up to you, epoxy, rivet in a steel patch or resoldering them with a new patch. No matter what, they will sound great.
If you decide to do any soldering on them, find someone with experience in soldering sheet metal. If you ever saw a radiator repair guy replace a brass tank, they make it look so easy. It probably is with 20 or 30 years of experience doing it. I know I'd wind up with a big mess on my hands, and I've been using torches for most of my life.
Keep us posted on how you proceed, I don't think this has been discussed before.

BillWojo

[wweigle]

If you look at the joints in the pictures you can see spots were the solder is showing under the paint.
Somebody help me out here, wasn't there photo's of the Altec horn shop posted showing horns being built? Not the cast horns but the built up steel horns. Might get some clues there.
How you decide to repair them is up to you, epoxy, rivet in a steel patch or resoldering them with a new patch. No matter what, they will sound great.
If you decide to do any soldering on them, find someone with experience in soldering sheet metal. If you ever saw a radiator repair guy replace a brass tank, they make it look so easy. It probably is with 20 or 30 years of experience doing it. I know I'd wind up with a big mess on my hands, and I've been using torches for most of my life.
Keep us posted on how you proceed, I don't think this has been discussed before.

BillWojo

I agree they look soldered to me, a common manufacturing technique during the the era of multi cell horns. I would look for a metal working shop that that still utilizes those skill, such as a radiators shop, or possibly a motor cycle shop that builds oil tanks and fuel tanks. Looks like a simple fix of aligning thing correctly and soldering using the proper solder, and soldering techniques.

[mah]

I like the professional solder method.

If that is not available then this may be an option: SteelStik Epoxy Putty Stick


| J-B Weld