I'm not sure where to ask this, but I figured it was worth a shot throwing the question out here. I had an old dining chair that had been damaged by a family member just leaving it out on the porch unprotected for a month or so (he has little regard for whether furniture is made for the outdoors or not), so it had become rather weather damaged when I'd gotten a hold of it. The wood frame is mostly repairable, and I intend to paint it anyway. That's actually not the issue, but plays a bit into it.

The issue is the back of the chair. I noticed, via running a knife around the edge, that it IS attached via screws, four in total, to the sides. However, they're not screwed in from the outside of the chair, but seemingly from the inside of the back. So, I decided to throw caution to the wind and cut away the old fabric, since I'm reupholstering everything anyway. I discover that the back is two wooden pieces, upholstered separately, and then attached together and somehow screwed from the inside to the frame. Now, that's a giant issue considering how they're attached together is apparently with two rusted large rivets. At least, they look like rivets. So, I've still got old, smelly cushion and super 70s orange pleather playing peekaboo from between the two "backs," and I'm at my wits end trying to yank them out, since they're stapled down to the bases, like most upholstery would be.

At this point, I'm tempted to break the back (carefully) off and just do a woven back, but, since I don't actually know much about chairs, I'm a little leery to do so... Any suggestions on the matter?