Originally Posted by BCRider

Nice CAD or whatever rendering. If you can whip that sort of thing up in a quick flash you should be thinking about looking for work as a CAD operator or image illustrator.

Anyhow looking at the damage it is obvious that the forks are totally toasted. Nothing you can do is going to make the forks functional in the way that they were intended. Sanding off the rust will just reduce the size of the stanchions and make the fork legs wobble in the lower leg bushings and generally make the front end feel like poo.

Here's a thought. You're hard up for money so I gather getting new forks is out of the question. So since these forks are shot beyond recovery I'm going to suggest that you convert them to rigid forks. Figure out how they come apart and then replace the springs with sections of thin wall pipe that you scavenge from whereever that fits into the forks to replace the springs. Size the length of the tubes so the forks compress about 1 to 1.5 inches down in their fully open travel. While you've got things apart rip away what is left of the rubber slider boots and sand clean the rusty areas that fit down into the lower sliders. Now comes the fun part. When it's all done and you're sure that the two "spring" tubes are just right and the fork is collapsing down about 1.25 inches to replicate the static sag that the forks would have with you on the bike mix up some good grade of epoxy and work it down into the top of the slider bushings. Heating the area until it's warm will thin the epoxy to almost a water like consistency and allow it to wick into the thin gap between the stanchion tube and the bushing in the slider. Keep it warm and keep sliding the fork to aid in working it in. When it seems good then allow to cool and use the last of the epoxy to lay in a nice little fillet bead around the top. Be sure the fork is collapsed firmly against the compression "spring" tubes and allow the epoxy to cure. When it's hard you've got yourself a $5 (for the epoxy) set of rigid forks for a budget price.

It's very likely that the forks will come apart if you unscrew that little cap down inside the tops of the stanchions. If nothing else the springs should come out and allow you to fit some thinwall metal tubes into their place.