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BJ8 rusty seat pan

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RobWarren

Jedi Hopeful
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Took my beloved Ruby to the trimmers at the weekend to pick some colours and for him to have a butchers at what's required. When we had a look at the rear seats we noticed that one of the pans is extremely rusty.

As the car is currently away for a couple of weeks having some work done, I was wondering if you blokes are aware of this problem and what can be done about it - I'm not sure if it's just the seat pan or goes further. Praying it's just the seat pan - we noticed the rust on the lip that forms the foremost part of the seat frame and didn't check the rest as I was running very short on time.

Anyone experienced this?

Easy to get replacements and fit them?

Bob
 
As with any steel part, your solution depends on how far you are willing to go, and how badly the part is deteriorated. If it's just surface rust, and no real structural problems, and you are willing to disassemble completely, then rust removal can be by wire brush, media blasting, acid dipping, sanding, etc. This should be followed by a good primer, then final coat of black paint. Rattle cans are fine for this application. My choice is Eastwood single stage epoxy Chassis Black, either regular or glossy.

I just finished my seat pans, front and rear, in this fashion. The rear pans needed all new studs, which were easily welded in.

Now, if you are not willing or able to disassemble and completely restore these items, then your options are more limited, and not as likely to provide a real long term solution. But whatever method you use, the basics are removing the rust, then coating the bare metal with paint.

You can use one of a couple other methods. One is a chemical conversion coating, usually a phosphoric acid preparation, which will neutralize the rust (after removing the bulk of it mechanically with wire brush, scraping, etc.), followed by paint. There are liquid products styled rust encapsulants, like Por-15. I haven't used these, so can't really comment much on them.

If your parts are badly rusted, to the extent of being unsound, then you might try locating a restorable used pan. Absent that, I believe new pans are available from the usual suppliers.

Another concern: If the pan needs complete refurbishing, and you are paying regular shop rates for labor, it may be less expensive to buy new. My pans had glue, rust and paint, with adhered foam, all of which I had to remove. This effort, along with replacing all the studs on the rear pans, took quite a while. So compare the costs of both methods before committing to either.

All that being said, I think completely restoring the myriad of parts necessary to a complete restoration is a great satisfaction. Good luck.
 
Just a point here, I had a 100/6 and the rear pans had rusted through but the rims were good, over here you can pick new ones up for around ÂŁ20 - ÂŁ25 each, but as I was practicing the noble art of metal bashing in night school with all the equipment, I undertook to cut out and replace the rusty sections. The first one had the middle cut out and a complete new section let in as it was mainly in the base, but the second had gone upto and around the edge of the rim so I undertook to repair this in strips, cutting a section out at a time welding new strips in and then cutting the next one out and so on. At the end, all welds were ground flush and then the wheeling machine was used to tidy up the shape. Was it worth it? not really but it gave me some good practice, without the right equipment it would have not looked so good.
My advice - if they are lacy - buy new. If it's just surface rust then go the Cutlass route.

Bob
 
Bob: I was thinking about your question a bit more, and it occurred to me that you might be wanting to leave the seat pans upholstered, just removing the rust from the underside. I wouldn't advise this. Any rust on the underside probably originated from inside, when water was trapped between the upholstery and the pan. This rust will remain, and screw up any attempts to eliminate the rust from the outside. So my advice is to do a complete job at this time. Anything less will not last.
 
Thanks boys. Turns out that the whole seat base is rusted so I'm going to check how bad it is and if it's completely rooted then I'll replace it with a new spare part and seat pans too.

Pain in the arse but good to find something like this before I put the beloved golf clubs in the back seat and have them go straight through.

Or a girlfriend.

No wait - that'd be funny. Just the golf clubs.
 
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