May 2012.
I am still working on the brakes and gas tank to get it driveable, attempts to clean the tank myself  have not worked I am going to have to have a shop clean it. I found two shops that I am going to look into to clean and seal it. Brake wise the steel lines are corroded and I cannot break them free without damaging the line or rounding the brass fitting so I am going to have to replace the whole system, all the lines, cylinders and shoes, etc. I am assuming the master cylinder is in the same shape although I do have a kit for the earlier dual cylinder. I have been finding some good deals for parts on ebay with free shipping that is helping keep costs down some.

As usual life starts getting in the way of what you really want to do. Cleaning the gas tank myself was not getting it done so I found a radiator shop to clean and line it. Now summer is here and it is 100 degrees in the shade so it is too hot to work on Murl, thats the po's name I gave to the '68. I have been driving the '82 Westy alot and enjoying it. I will update this when the weather cools some, enjoy your summer :)

I've been shopping for brake parts and have decided on Vintage Parts Inc. in Calif. www.vintagepartsinc.com (web page is out of date) I used them several years ago for parts for my '55, the brake parts are German and at a good price. I can get the parts from my local O'Reilly store but they are chinese and anything that comes from there (china) is junk. I'm still looking for a place to clean the gas tank at but I may do it myself.
I finally got the title in the mail from the previous owner and called a VW friend who is an agent for Collector Car Insurance www.collectorcarins.com and it will be insured in a few days then I can title it.

Seperately, the '86 Cabriolet came back from the shop and is running again, it will be cleaned up and put up for sale. The '82 Westy is running fine.

Some 35 year old gas.

Took some pictures of the tank removal.

We've had some rainy days which prevented me getting anything done except after one heavy downpour I sat in the bug and looked for water coming in but there was'nt any it was dry :) The rain has washed off most of the dirt and there is a nice shine to the paint coming out.

Satuday I cleaned the inside of the mildew using a water/ammonia mix it came out pretty good better than I expected

I removed the carburetor, rebuilt it and installed it today. No surprises found during the rebuild, it looks like its never been opened before. Then I removed the gas tank, I pulled the front wheel to get access to the fuel line to drain it and after I pulled it off nothing but some drops came out. So after I removed it I just drained it out through the filler neck. While the tank is out getting cleaned I'm going to do the front brakes, new cylinder, shoes, hoses. It will be alot easier to get to them with the tank removed.