Well, my daughter and her husband now have the use of our '99 van and my wife and I are completely enthralled with the bug. The first expense was to get all the electrical repaired. That cost more than the $150 my wife talked the owner down when we bought it, but everything was running smoothly.
Then it was something close to $1,000 to pull the engine and replace all the seals--no driveway drips--and clutch and miscellaneous 'fix-it's' and new brakes. Then it was working perfectly.
Until the old girl broke a clutch cable at our local grocery store in the middle of the night. A quick walk home and a tow didn't make my wife happy. Me, I was just glad it was only a $6. part + labor to fix.
Then came the problem when I replaced the points but didn't grease the distributor shaft. She worked fine for a week or two, then began backfiring and failed on my wife right after she dropped me off at work.
Another tow and $15 for me to replace the points. I found a fine white powder inside the distributor that was the plastic knob off the former points, worn to powder by the shaft. (I check the grease now).
Then came the morning I was dropping my son-in -law off at work and I pushed the clutch pedal down and it did nothing! Another tow. However, the (new)clutch cable hadn't snapped, the piece that hooked it to the pedal had failed. It had been welded at some point in time and failed under load.
The new replacement part was only $10. + one hour's labor to install. (which makes me wonder why someone ever welded it in the first place???)
Then there was the morning my wife was driving me to work and the gas pedal came apart. We were only a block from an auto repair shop at the time so I pushed her on in and we both walked (Her to home, me to work.) That was $35 for a welding job to repair the pedal.
You'd think we'd have had enough of this car by now . . . not at all. Our '66 is great fun to drive and simple to work on. There's plenty of room and it gets good gas mileage. We love to tour the local mountains in it--it has a great field of view--and commute together. We're replacing old parts as we find them and look forward to the time when we've sorted out all the jury-rigged pieces people have installed over the years.
This morning my wife noted a bad spot on one of the tires so, after I dropped her off at work, I stopped by the local tire shop to get it replaced. When I picked her up tonight with the custom, chrome, wide tires replaced with standard-sized beetle rims and tires, she was ecstatic. I didn't even have to explain that putting on the proper sized rims and tires cost less than just replacing the custom tires someone had 'upgraded' it to.
Now her real complaint is . . . she wants another beetle!
I'm a happy man!
It's a great color, but I'm afraid it's going to have to go. With the rain gone for the summer, I'll probably be taking her apart to strip, re-prime and paint. I don't know how long till I get around to that job, but I've spot-painted the raw/bare metel and hammered out most of the dents. One section on top was bondoed over rust and was cracking off so I gouged it out, sanded down to bare steel and re-bondoed the dent. I'm afraid the old metallic green is now speckled with Forrest and/or tractor green (anything to protect it from the Oregon rain.) 
Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you but I bet she'll be a beaut when you are done!