[Christ]

Updates:

I did end up getting the title from the guy. He was having phone troubles, and couldn't get ahold of me for awhile. The car is now legitimately mine.

I removed a bunch of extraneous wiring and some Wal-Mart driving lights from the car so far, and cleaned up a better spot in the barn for it.

After removing the starter, and inspecting it, I found that it needs to be rebuilt. The bushing just behind the starter gear is bad, and the solenoid causes the armature to shift around 5mm to one side, which causes the starter to disengage from the flywheel. It also spins VERY hard. A 50A boost charger almost overloaded getting it to spin. This would explain my difficulty in jump starting the buzzard.

I managed to get an injection pump from a TDI of the same generation, in case I ever decide to boost it. I also snagged some good looking brake pads from the salvage vehicle.

I'm looking into swapping for better front and rear brakes, hopefully discs in the back, if i can find something from a newer gen with rear discs that will basically be a bolt-in with only mild part swapping (rubber lines, etc.).

The car has 3/4 tank of fuel in it, which is a good thing. I'd hate to put a bunch of fuel in it just to find out something's catastrophically wrong with it, eh?

BTW - it's got just over 250k on it. Not bad for a diesel.