Recommendations for rusty seats

[KarenTheBug]

Spring project season is looming before me, which means its finally time to take those vintage 1971 seats I bought, clean them up, and get them into Karen so I can get those Porsche leather seats out.

I haven't really looked at them since I bought them last October, but turned them over and took a better look today - they are RUSTY. Granted, there aren't any holes rotted through the frames and the springs are intact and still "springy," but I'm getting some iron flaking off and the seat back release mechanism hangs & crunches when you pull the lever (but it does still work).

All this means that instead of just wiping down the vinyl and putting them in, I'm going to have to pull off the upholstery / padding, take these apart, and clean them up. Honestly though, I'm not sure how to even begin attacking this beast.

1. How exactly do I detach the seat back from the lower seat?
2. I need recommendations on how to attack this rust problem. There is of course the option of sanding everything down by hand, priming, painting, etc. (but how do I feasibly get in there to sand springs? You can't really do that, is the answer). I've also read about phosphoric acid being used to remove rust, found at auto restoration stores - anybody ever done this? The last thing I read about are "rust converters" - has anybody used this stuff before?

Alternative to this lengthy process is Rust converters, those are primers designed to be applied directly to a rusty surface. Unlike the standard scrape, prime, and paint regime, the user does not have to bring the surface down to bare metal. There are two primary components in a rust converter: a tannin and an organic polymer. The organic polymer provides a protective primer layer.The tannin reacts with the iron oxide, converting it to iron tannate, a stable blue/black corrosion product. You can find a can of that in Walmart for $3 or so.

That almost makes sense to spray a real heavy dose up inside all the spring work ... but like I said, I await your response. As I always say, she's a preservation, not a restoration ... I'll be re-using the nicked vinyl upholstery and horsehair padding if at all possible, and just want to make sure these seats don't continue to rust until the frames break or the springs crumble.

[beetlenut1]

Phosphoric acid is great stuff. Ospho is what I use. If you're going to take off the upholstery / padding, then you can use Muratic acid from the hardware store to strip the rust off down to bare metal. Flush with water, let air dry, and wait a few days for a light coating of surface rust to form. Then spray with Ospho, let that dry, then metal primer and paint. Should be good for another 40 years. Really the only way I'm dealing with rust from now on!

[heli-easy]

This might be a good application for doing electrolytic rust removal.

Just need a tub big enough to dip half the seat section in.