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Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:33 pm

The vinyl on my '71 'Vert Seats is in good condition but the seat bottoms were lacking. It felt like you were sitting directly on the springs.

I ordered replacement foam and pulled the passenger side seat. I carefully removed the bottom cover and the original padding. What a difference with the new foam!

My question is; Should I keep the old padding? Its in good shape for its age but I cannot imaging anyone, including myself ever using this and I have enough stuff laying around.

While I generally keep everything I pull off of the car, I am thinking of making an exception here.

Here are photos of the padding:

Opinions? Should it stay or should it go?

Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:51 pm

We have a saying at the shop which generally holds true to everything Ghia related:
"Keep EVERY part you take off that car and store it in a labelled baggie and box until the car is finished being restore... and then... KEEP EVERY PART off that car..." :lol:

While the intention of that sentiment is that even if you end up with spares... someone, somewhere probably is missing that part, this clip, this badge; so even if your spare is "lacking" it's better than the nothing another guy or gal here has... Helps convince the wife that your copious quantities of baggied, boxed parts "wasting" all that shelf space in the basement or garage are not entirely without merit - trade points or extra cash - like a bank account for the future - invested in precious metals right?

BUT.. or should I say BUTT?
The old horse hair seat cushions are probably one thing most folks aren't going to want... That's another saying we have at the shop - "would you put your butt in that seat? you don't know where it's been!" :lol:

My vote: dump'em. They're just messy and hard to contain anyway.

Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:53 pm

You wouldn't happen to have pictures of the new foam? Was it easy to install? Who did you get it from? I'm in the same way, perfect old seats, just need new stuffing.

Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:55 pm

Jeff:

That is my inclination but I am so paranoid about tossing stuff I thought it best to check.

BTW. I know this stuff is called "horse hair" but is it really horse hair?

Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:00 pm

MRRAGPICKER Wrote:

Quote: You wouldn't happen to have pictures of the new foam? Was it easy to install? Who did you get it from? I'm in the same way, perfect old seats, just need new stuffing.

I was actually thinking of taking pictures of the process for the driver's seat and posting here. I think I will. It was not difficult and came out good.

I ordered the new foam from CIP:

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=T43%2D1500

Its basically just a molded foam piece. I will take pics.

Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:03 pm

I don't know if it is actually horse hair or not?
I have always assumed it WAS at one time - like back when women walked outside with parasols and we men laid our coats on the muddy street for them to climb into a horse-drawn carriage...

I seem to recall though, that whatever the material it was by the time the Ghias were getting their interiors installed - treated with a flame retardants so it's kinda' rubbery-ish.. Frankly it seems more like it's made of straw or hay or something but what manufacturer (back then) wanted to admit to being "green" :lol:

Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:17 pm

I ask because we have horses and it doesn't seem like any hair that ever came off of any horse we ever owned.

I suspect it might have been the real stuff back in the days of the horse drawn carriage but this stuff feels like a synthetic material.

Then again, who knows. They eat horses in Europe so they must do something with the skin and hair.

Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:22 am

Somewhere, sometime, I've seen it referred to as 'rubberized horsehair' in the VW manuals.

Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:33 am

I would think that it is real horse hair. Here in Ireland, horse hair was also used to strengthen lime plaster used inside houses.

Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:59 am

The pads should be kept! When Bill Webner at Der WagenWerks restored my seats he used the old pads, rebuilding some of the worn padding and then encapsulated the pads before putting new covers on.

The repro pads are a bit generic.