Seats - Foam vs. Horsehair

[Wayne Arny]

OK. I'm working on the seats in my '57 coupe next. They are vinyl with corduroy inserts and original. I'd like them to be as close to the original as possible. What do I do? Are there any shops in the DC-Baltimore area anyone out there would recommend? I have had 356s since 1963, and they have all had original seats, and I like that feel. I recently bought a restored 356B, and it has the foam in the seats, and I don't like that. I have copied and saved every word and picture you all have written on this subject so far. Is this something I could do myself? Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Simon DeGiuliBotta]

3 years late in a reply but I have decided to buy my leather from Connolly Bros in London they have a color that is a besr exact match to the original red vinyl in my 57’ speedster. I just need to find the very fine white piping and someone to trim them using the original horse hair material which can be purchased from Reutters.. https://reutter-karosserie.de/en/Interi ... dster.html the problem I have found is everyone wants to sell me modern foam. Nobody seems to care about using the original stuff.

[Simon DeGiuliBotta]

Connolly Code: VM3108 smells and feels like leather once did.

[Al Zim]

The foam for the seats were manufactured in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area. In order to be sold in California the seat foam had to be made of material that WAS NOT A PETROCHEMICAL. I believe that this was a rice derivative. The person that manufactured the cushions was a customer of ours and I spent time talking with him about making a parcel tray in place of the jump seats.

[Dick Weiss]

Years ago I once had a 356A coupe which had the seats rebuilt w/foam, but being too soft, they were rebuilt
for proper seating efficiency--The ride was better w/the car versus against it.

[Jim Liberty]

My upholstery shop here in Costa Mesa uses a firm foam. Also stuffs the springs with it. Been using them for 20 years. ........Jim.

[James Davies]

Thanks Alan. Here's a photo of a well-preserved seat from early 1953, unrestored. Agree 100% that it's mill finish. Nice catch.

[Robert Braunsberger]

James, this seat is in an amazingly well preserved condition! I am very interested in the way Reutter made the tie down with the cord. Could you please post some more detailed pictures showing how that was done?

[James Davies]

Maybe it is a little clearer here. I also have a set of seats here at home I can take some more detailed photos of.

[Dave Erickson]

What does the cord do? I see that it is tied in two places to the springs, and it is looped around the frame at each end. Is there more to it than that?

[Martin Benade]

The stitches that pull down on the pleat are looped around that cord as an anchor, and it is tied down to the springs.

[Dave Erickson]

The stitches that pull down on the pleat are looped around that cord as an anchor, and it is tied down to the springs.

Martin, I assume you are telling me that on faith. I don’t see in the photo any loops going around the cord, or any places where the cord appears to have something pulling it upwards.

[Martin Benade]

You are right. The picture mostly shows lots of springs, I was describing my B seats that I thought were done the same way. Mine has a crosswise cord sort of like a paper lollipop stick but on closer inspection the picture shows two thin cords, not what I thought. We’ll wait for a correct answer.

[Robert Braunsberger]

Very interesting! I also think the cord should be somehow linked to the upper materials, otherwise it would rather tend to pull the differengt layers apart rather than pulling down all of it together and forming the pleat visible on the seat bottoms. How about the green loop that appears right next to the left hand knot in James' last picture above? Is that the 'missing link'? Also, where were the ends of the cord finally tied together at the factory? I remember working on my unrestored but very tired T1 seats a while ago and I couldn't figure out the place of that knot as the cord was torn and what was left was not very useful.

[Mark Reich]

Revibing this thread, I am still working on my seat project. I have the bare horsehair pads. What are people using to fill out this pads at the sides to create the bolstering? It looks like this may have been some form of felt. Is tis something that can be sourced an upholstery shop? Is it glued onto the horsehair pad to build up the bolsters? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mark