i am buying a car that has sit for a while and has rust build up on the rotors. what steps can i take to get the rust off of them and restore to near perfect condition? any advice would help, thanks

Just drive the car and use the brakes, that will clean up the rust. Nothing on these cars will look factory new again.

Before you do anything to your existing calipers check the parts places for the price for re-built calipers. Most of the early models are available for around $12 each. Even the later ones are cheap enough where I wouldn't spend the time cleaning and rebuilding.

If you install rebuilt calipers, just clean them up real good (they're usually coated in a light oil) and paint them before installing.

Krap, you're talking about the rotors. If they're too bad you can have them turned by a shop. If it's just light surface stuff the brake pads will take it off. I'd call around for prices to turn them, seems like there's a big variance in price, at least around here. One place wanted $12 per to slap it on a machine and let it spin for 5 minutes, sheesh.