Found a few extra minutes out of watching the kids and yard work today to get a good look at my seat. Here's what I've found and done so far!
My "helper" working on the last screw before removing the seat!
Seat removed! So that's what the carpet color should be!
May be hard to see, but half the screws are completely rusted and the hinges on the right of this pic have completely ripped out of the wood:
A good shot of the damage. I'm hoping I can remove the 8000 staples, repair from the inside, then re-attach. The wood isn't quite as bad as I thought but we'll see!