I need some advice. Several years ago I pot-welded a fountain together out of three pieces of un-equal length 4"x4" steel square tubing. Welded plate @ 5" below the top of each tube form basins. Water flows (via garden hose) up through a hole in the top basin (i.e, on the tallest of the three "pillars" and then cascades down to the two below; basins in the lower pillars fill up and overflow into a reservoir covered by rocks. Please see the attached picture.

The metal is @ 3/16 thick and is untreated/unfinished. For some time there has been heavy scaling on the inside of the "tubes" but until recently there has been very little rust on the outside except within the basins, and even there the rust has been minimal. Lately, however, the rust has become more concerning as there is blistering within at least one of the basins. I want to preserve this as long as possible and so I have the following thoughts, upon which I would welcome advise;

A. Treat exterior with linseed. I believe the proper way to do this is to heat the metal (I'd use a weed dragon-style propane torch) and wipe on boiled linseed oil. Questions:
1) Do I heat first and then apply linseed oil, or vice versa?
2) Can I apply without "sanding" down to bare metal?
3) Can I do one section at a time laying it down horizontally and then flipping, or do I need to essentially keep it vertical and do all surfaces at once?

B. Rubber-seal interior & basin. Once the linseed treatment is completed, I planned to spray the basins and the interior of the tubes with some sort of sealant (Flex Seal?). It is not feasible for me to scrap the scaled rust on the inside of the tubes (can't reach) so my hope is that the sealant would help to arrest further development of rust. Thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

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