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Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:19 am

Any horn button experts out there?

This all began when I started looking for a replacement horn button for the 55. First one I was offered made me realise the design differed from the item fitted to my car which I believe to be original.

Anyone know why this is? Does it indicate different manufacturers or dates of manufacture or does it indicate the difference in Bug and Bus Batwing's?

Here the button fitted to my car

Here's one I was offered. As you can see, the wolf is a different design, as is the castle and water. The castle on my button is flared towards the bottom which is not the case with this one.

Here's one just posted in classifieds which is closer to the one above than mine but again looks to have slight variations. The wolf is deffo different.

Any ideas???

Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:28 pm

The horn button on my '53 is definitely the same as on your '55; same style portcullis and ears on the wolf etc.....
I wonder if the button you have been offered and the Samba advert one have repro crests? Both of them look too 'new' to my (inexpert :lol: ) eye...........

:wink:

EDIT

I've now added some pics of mine..............

Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:09 am

Here is one off my late '54 Swedish oval... if it's of any help.

Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:23 am

the one in my 54 is like the one in your 55. i know its original

Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:22 am

Undis wrote: Here is one off my late '54 Swedish oval... if it's of any help.

Are you sure that the crest is OG?
The centre and chrome rim looks brand-new yet the outer part of the horn button appears to have years of age-related wear?

:wink:

Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:36 am

This is an interesting one as you may think the design of the button changed in Aug 55 but then again so did the whole steering wheel so that theory doesn't work!

I guess the answer could be there was more than one supplier and this accounts for the differences?

Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:20 am

1955 known original.

Click on images to see them full size.

Fri Nov 21, 2008 6:32 am

Nessy wrote: Undis wrote: Here is one off my late '54 Swedish oval... if it's of any help.

Are you sure that the crest is OG?
The centre and chrome rim looks brand-new yet the outer part of the horn button appears to have years of age-related wear?
:wink:

Not 100% sure as the car has passed through a few hands before I got it. In real life the button is less shiny and new looking and actually has some hairline cracks. Now that I compare it to what IN2VWS posted, there are some differnces. The porthole size in the upper part of the towers, and mine has more recognizable portholes also in the fouth brick from the ground. The wolf's eye on mine is almost non-visible, the legs are different, the tail less bushy etc.

Are there known reproductions of the button, or as stated previously, there were several manufacturers of these buttons?

edit: I would say this one and mine are identical

Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:13 am

Kind of off topic..but how did Vw get the gold in there so perfectly? What is it?

Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:18 am

the clear plastic button has the crest molded in reverse. Then there was a gold paint applied to the crest and then the rest was painted black.

I removed all of it once with the plan of making a reproduction by casting them. The gold paint was kind of like a paste more than a paint. It came off pretty easily.

Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:24 am

splitjunkie wrote: the clear plastic button has the crest molded in reverse. Then there was a gold paint applied to the crest and then the rest was painted black.

I removed all of it once with the plan of making a reproduction by casting them. The gold paint was kind of like a paste more than a paint. It came off pretty easily.

Well, that's kind of the reason for the question. I have a friend working on reproducing a different type of horn button and we can't really figure out the gold. Is it really a paint? It seems waaay too reflective for that?

Fri Nov 21, 2008 7:01 pm

use gold leaf, get it at Hobby Lobby, use "Q" Tip to get the leaf off the parts u don't want it, spray paint and u are done.

Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:06 am

This is the one that was original to my '54.

My '50 came with the correct ivory horn ring housing but had a later zwitter through '55 crest button. Obviously it was not original to the car but as I remember it was a little different than the one in my '54. I still have the original '54 button that has had the gold and black paint removed but the other one replaced it in my '54 since it was in good shape and I sold that car 10 years ago.

I would say that there were at least two or three variations of the same button.

It is easiest to look at the tail. One leans to the left further and has pronounced wisps of fur on the right side of the tail. The other one is more upright has is less detailed.
Mine has 8 blocks on the center parapet with the center 4 having a pronounced bump out. I have not seen that on the others posted so far.

Mine is closest to the one IN2VWS posted but his does not have the bump out and the two end blocks on the center parapet are very narrow on his and are wide on mine.

Sat Nov 22, 2008 3:42 pm

Tks for that post Chris. This gets more and more interesting!

Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:03 am

This is mine.

It is in a very good condition.
It seems to be original.
But what is the color of the housing???

Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:23 am

gunlau wrote: This is mine.

It is in a very good condition.
It seems to be original.
But what is the color of the housing???

What makes you say it is original?
Is the car a one owner car in original condition?
Have you owned the car long?

No disrespect, but it looks like a repro.

Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:06 am

When I dismanteld the horn button for repainting, I notice a number and the vw sign inside the housing.
The brezel has been rechromed.
About the push button, I´m not sure. I guess this is not a repro.
The backside of pushbutton has 4 circles
Maybe someone else could take a pic of the backside of the pushbutton.

Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:41 am

OK....from an original...

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa28/in2vws_com/theSamba/IMG_7796.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa28/in2vws_com/theSamba/IMG_7797.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa28/in2vws_com/theSamba/IMG_7801.jpg

I say it again, I think yours is a reproduction.

Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:48 pm

Germanpride wrote: splitjunkie wrote: the clear plastic button has the crest molded in reverse. Then there was a gold paint applied to the crest and then the rest was painted black.

I removed all of it once with the plan of making a reproduction by casting them. The gold paint was kind of like a paste more than a paint. It came off pretty easily.

Well, that's kind of the reason for the question. I have a friend working on reproducing a different type of horn button and we can't really figure out the gold. Is it really a paint? It seems waaay too reflective for that?

Have been through this reproduction process a few times now with the early and late oval hornbuttons we produce, the castle images were a vacuum metallized form of plating, expensive to do in small quantity, most shops won't touch handfuls, I've asked several, and the ones that will want excruciating amounts of money to do a few.

Generally the original plate will remove itself fairly easily from the plastic acrylic surface since its not truly a plate but more of a laminate which over 50 years loses alot of its original tenacity, which is why you see alot of originals with this stuff already flaking off the back. I went through 3-4 original hornbuttons of each variety until I could get one of each that would fully let go of its original plating. On the later oval hornbuttons they really backfilled the original image alot more, which intentionally or not really prevents the flaking from occurring.

I developed a sort of gold paste out of a bright gold enamel with added in gold flake, it gets close to the original finish, check my ads and see what you think, its not quite as brilliant as a flat plate will produce but it will pass for original. The reason, the case of these castle images if you look closely you will notice that the image is fairly textured, therefore a brilliant gold enamel will look very very close to the original plating since its an uneven surface. Its a little different on the wolf and moat/water sections since those are flatter images, but the consistency of the enamel sets a nice even tone quality for the image. Good luck with the project Germanpride.

Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:48 am

Brezelwerks wrote: I went through 3-4 original hornbuttons of each variety until I could get one of each that would fully let go of its original plating.

You are magic you know :wink:
So much so that I will even forgive you for making the devils hornpush! :shock: :D

ps. When are you going to write a book?!