Yes, VW continued to use 'horse-hair' mixed into the padding on
later-model VW's for that trademark German seat feeling.
For the record, it's "coir", which is coconut fiber, and has been used in
many VW parts since the 50's.
It's cheap, last for many years and makes an excellent dense padding for
seats.
  I recently bought some repro molded coir seat pads for my '59 Beetle seat
restoration from Wolfsburg West.
It is what creates that distinctive VW interior smell, and leaves its
crumbles on the floor below the seats as it wears.
Love it!   It takes me back to the old days.....

Mike B.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Bange
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 8:46 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Horsehair in Vanagons

Everyone knows that distinctive smell of "old Volkswagen". I remember asking
about it as a kid, riding in my father's 76 Beetle, and him explaining that
it's the horsehair padding in the seats. Later he showed me it, visible on
the back of the rear seat backrest. When I first bought my '90 Vanagon, it
had the same smell, which I found surprising given the foam padding in the
seats. Where does the smell come from? Today I had to remove the rear heater
and cap off the hoses (the usual leaking rear core). The carpet and
underpadding were soaked with coolant, so I tossed the carpet (it was
trashed anyway) and pulled up the mulched and formed foam pad to hose it
off. Upon closer inspection in the sunlight, I saw this:

<http://i.imgur.com/cchmh.jpg>

Is that what it looks like? Is that our old friend Horsehair mixed in with
the crumbled recycled foam? Is THAT where the classic VW Smell is coming
from?