The more money and time you pump into a 40+ year old project car, the less issues you will have.
I spent a good sum of money for my 64 beetle 4 years ago. It was a total body off restoration with new almost everthing. Within the first 6 months, I found that the passenger door was binding, and the hinges were frozen. The car needed an alignment...badly. The charging system never did work. The steering wheel came 3 weeks after I bought it and found that the wheel splines did not match the shaft, and it was 'forced' on. The left axle boot was incorrectly installed, so a month after purchase, it ate itself, and I lost most of my tranny fluid coming home from Seattle. On top of that, the decklid was not installed properly, and the paint was marginal.
Some people would think that I got ripped off. Everything else on the car is cherry, and based what you get for price on many cars i have seen sold since, I am not unhappy with my car or how much I paid for it.
I think a lot of people have an unreasonable expectation with respect to the value of things out there. I think you would be lucky to find an old car that was 10k and has no issues. With the cost of materials and time, I think it is more reasonable to expect an older vw to cost north of 20k to have 'no' issues.
