Some (before) pictures..

I bought this car for $674.00.
The lady I bought the car from, had bought the car for their daughter. I think the daughter, didn't know what price she would pay for being "Cool" and buying a cute car... She stopped driving the car when it got cold here in VA Beach...

The car had a broken engine fan when I bought it and it was howling like hell. The carb was shot and the body needed a little help. The interior was covered in some girly crap, that was promptly removed. The trunk was a mess and the car wasn't entirely intact... I adhered to my lovely wife's two main concerns, "It can't be Orange and it has to run."

The decklid and bumper were crunched. The rear tail light was crunched. The hood and bumper in the front was crunched.
The tires were bad, the speedo cable was broken. The generator wasn't charging. The engine was really oily and dirty. The fuel lines were cracked. The dash was gone. The steering was shot.The ball joints were bad. The rims were to far rusted for repair. The clutch was worn. The list goes on and on. I just wanted to say, I didn't know all the things listed above were needing to be repaired or replaced.
Some things were obvious, the engine and the clutch work weren't so obvious. I'm not complaining the car is thirty years old.........

The original dash was really bad. The plan was to remove the original dash and go with a smooth dash. A smooth dash is the metal dash underneath the dash pad. You pretty much remove the pad, fill the holes left over by the original pad, and sand and paint the dash to match the car. This was my plan. The thing that really burned me was the radio hole.
The radio hole had been enlarged by a gorilla with a pair of pliers. The hole really ruined the dash. I did paint the dash to match and then placed a new dash pad over it....

If you decide to insulate the inside of your doors, try not to use any thing that will hold water against the metal skin of the door. Water is supposed to run in the doors and out through the drain holes at the bottom of the door. The only thing I would use in conjuction with the original tar boards is, rubberized under coat spray, Cool Patch roofing compound, and maybe Dynamat sound deadening pads. Clean out the door drains! Rusty doors suck. Period.

The trunk was pretty crappy. The gas tank had surface rust. The glove box was gone. The heater connections were missing, they were later found in the car under the seat. The wires from the fuse box were strewn about. The fresh air box was not connected. There were new wires, "grounded" to bolts in the car. I guess the previous owner was an back yard electrician.
I cleaned out the trunk, used some (spray and wipe) degreaser on all the metal, sanded and painted the gas tank. Re connected the fresh air box and heater connections. I masked off the new connections I made, including the gas tank and painted the entire trunk with rustoleum gloss black paint. I put a trunk carpet kit in there any way.

I removed all the rust and bondo. I sanded like a mad man.
I filled the area with new body filler and painted the hood.
It's temporary fix I know, what can you do, when you're broke.

TIP : With a "new" VW purchase, clean every connection that goes to your fuse box with a wire tooth brush and WD-40. Clean every male and female connector. Inspect for splits in the female connectors. When your done with the fusebox in the trunk, move to the inside of the car and do the fuses and the connectors in there. If you want do it right, move on to all the lights and their connections, do the bulbs too... This can done in one afternoon and you can really fix annoying problems like: weak tail/brake lights, weak turn signal and headlights and most other annoying intermittant electrical problems....