tedward515

I have a set of manual seats that I'm recovering and swaping out with the power ones that I have in my 81. So I started to pull them apart and found out that the bottom of both of the seat frames are very rusted. The frame for the seat back on both of them is fine along with the foam cushions.

My qustion is, due most of the old manual frames have rust and need work or can frames in better shape be found rather easy?

danglerb

FL and CA, big difference. We have museums so kids can see what rust looks like.

BBX

True, i was surprised to find out after stripping my 79 down to a bare shell there is absolutely NO RUST ANYWHERE on the car. It even spent 100% of it's life at the beach (which would attribute to the minor surface rust on some of the underhood metal and aluminum oxidization)

Mrmerlin

I wonder if the car was in a flood , this looks like it could have been salt water

Champagne

I have taken a bunch of those apart and I have never seen this much rust on a frame.
I would agree with the flood scenario

Paul

Mrmerlin

any chance the seats were sitting in a puddle somewhere possibly a basement that flooded?? or left out in a shed that saw some flood water

tedward515

I was thinking along those same lines about a flood. They came from a 78 or 79 euro in horrible shape that a local mechanic is convinced he can get 5k for. I offered a couple hundred bucks as a parts car but he always turns me down. He says it runs, but the couple of times that I've been to talk to him he always has an excuse, can't find keys ect....

Anyway the seats where in the car when I looked at them, so I didn't see some of the rust until I picked them up a few days later. I wouldn't have bothered with them had I realized that they were that bad after I pulled them apart. I got the them because I would like to A, have a manual seat for the extra headroom/weight savings and B, to keep my down time to a minimum I while recover them. I guess my search is back on for a set of manual seats or the bottom frame at least.

Thanks guys,

Champagne

That's no big deal anyway. Just wire brush most of the rust away and paint them with Rustoleum. Make sure to mask the gears.

I am more worried about the foam. But if they are good, you're good to go.
These things are bullet proof.

Paul

BBX

Um... you might want to take those things to a chrome shop and have them dipped in acid. You could have both frames back to bare metal in a few minutes for only a few bucks.

tedward515

Paul, if you think that the frame can be saved then maybe I will give it a try.

I think the foam is fine, it isn't chewed up or anything. Just a little is missing where the vinyl was split and it was exposed. I haven't noticed a smell, mold or anything like that either.

Thanks guys

danglerb

Wire brush then something chemical maybe and Rustoleum.

soupcan

Wire brush or sandblast followed by Ospho and/or POR-15, good to go.

BBX

Are we looking at the same picture??? tedward, those things need some serious attention. I wouldn't go any less than a professional sandblasting. I still think acid bath is the cheapest, fastest, best route. Dangler is probably one of the wisest guys here, but trying to wire brush that frame will cause you to hang yourself...
Eastwood sells a product that turns rust into epoxy (supposedly) but I have never used it, and can't see it working.
It all comes down to how **** you are. I'm a freaking perfectionist (unfortunately) and I wouldn't even be able to drive the car if I didn't address that mess fully.

Fogey1

An unsolicited testimonial for OSPHO.
The guy at my local auto paint supply store sold me some and I used it on a steel outdoor sculpture that was COMPLETELY rust covered.

I wire-brushed the whole thing lightly with a hand brush and then rolled Ospho on with a paint roller. It changed the rusty surfaces to a black surface that wasn't rusty.

That was five years ago and the sculpture has stayed in the same place - snowed, rained, blown and shone on. I test-painted a square foot of it with Rustoleum and a square foot with Krylon and both have remained unscathed by rust.

So has the Ospho-transformed black surface, though it has begun to change color in the last year or so to something that has a hint of rust - not enough to get on your hand when you rub it across the surface, and nothing close to a really rusty surface as it had been years ago. The stuff's amazing.

It does need to go on rust, not bare steel. Put it on clean steel and it has no apparent effect and that steel will rust later. If one then puts Ospho on that rust it will turn black and stop. I learned this when I had to re-apply Ospho after a couple of weeks to those parts of the sculpture I had brushed too well, down to shiny metal, before the first application.

So if you use it on those seat frames don't go to bare metal, just knock off the big stuff. If it were me, I'd Ospho, set it outside for a week or two, Ospho again and then paint.

Better living through chemistry.

BBX

thanks fogey, i have never heard a first hand testimony for the stuff. glad you chimed in on the product. I still wouldn't use it on my car, but would definitely use it on a rusty old fence or something now.