Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My 65 elan came with 3 seats. 2 passenger (right side- yes I am in the US) and one driver. Both passenger seats were in the car because they were in better shape. I have removed much of the lower cover to get a good look at the frame of the driver seat. It has a fair amount of rust (but not all the way through). To this newbie it seams like I need to sand/brush off all of the rust and then paint the frame before installing new cushions and covers.

Is this the best way to go? Are there better ways to remove the rust?

Any advice is welcome.

Robb

Robb,

As I have posted previously, the best course of action is to have the seat frames sand or media blasted to remove all rust and remaining finish. Take the frames to a good welding shop to have new steel tubing added where necessary and to reinforce any questionable bends or attachment points. Once the repairs have been made they can be primed and painted.

Lee Levey
1964 S1

Robb - I took my seats down to the frame also. Because the rust was not too extensive, I simply cleaned it up - primed and painted it. I did have to re-weld the piece of flimsy steel rod which forms the hip arch in both cases. Putting on new seat covers from Dave Bean was straightforward. I used all new foam. Only recommendation would be to add extra polyester padding/batting at the top of the seat back and at the front of the seat bottom (as compared to what was there originally). I only did that on one seat and it looks a lot better. Only tool needed was a set of hog-ring pliers.
Good luck
Paul Zimmerman
65 S2