Right, time for another update on this as things have been progressing fairly well, but some of it seems to have been one step forward and two back!
First off, more back from the paint shop :D
So to start putting it back together, the inner wings have been covered in Shultz and various seams and crevices have been waxoiled while there was nothing in the way. Hopefully this will help keep it from rusting! Anyway on with on with putting bits back on the car.
The brake linkage was first as i needed to run all new lines for it. The rear fleix's having never been changed in the car's 200k mile life stood little chance of undoing and there was some corrosion on the hard lines running under the car. While fitting the brake linkage, I managed to scratch my shiny new paint, cue a few choice words at my own stupidity and some more waxoil although I hadn't gone down to metal. The marks won't be visible when the engine is in place, just annoyed it took me so little time to damage it.
Anyway next was the steering rack, should be fairly straightforward as it was all ok when it came off I thought. Guess what, i was wrong. It turns out that my aftermarket steering rack and original UJ to the column were not as good a fit as they should have been. The UJ rocked on the pinion shaft splines even with the pinch bolt tightened up. Off came the rack and the track rods and boots were changed over to a spare VW rack that I salvaged off the replacement front end. No play in the steering now!
It's starting to look familiar again.
Fitted the other new inner CV joint to match the one I fitted before crashing the car. Pulled the wiring looms through from the fusebox and refitted all the rubber grommets and loom clips. I didn't count them but there were a lot!
Lets reintroduce the engine to the party.

Nothing has been done to this in the time the car has been off the road, it's just been sat on a pallet in another building exactly as it was when it came out.
It needed cleaning up a bit, as oil got sprayed everywhere because the oil filter got bent. The gearbox needed replacing because it was leaking oil and the dif bearings were whining. Decision time, what gearbox to use, I had an O2A that I pulled from a Seat Toledo 16v a few years back and is cable clutch, or an O2O from a mk3 Golf 8v. The golf box won for the sake of an easy life at the moment although I do have mounts for the O2A into a mk1 chassis.
New crankshaft oil seal going in as I had to change the clutch to fit the input shaft of the mk3 gearbox.
The engine went in very easily, shame I had to pretty much remove it again the following weekend to refit the alternator bolt which I'd forgotten to put on. It wasn't so easy to get back the second time around.
That was the progress up until the start of last weekend.
Plan for the weekend, get the engine running.

The engine is all now wired up, exhaust system is hung, radiator is fitted, fuel system connected up, oil and coolant filled up and the instrument cluster plugged in.
Ok, time to attach a battery and cross fingers. No magic smoke, turn the ignition on and still no smoke, looking good. Primed the fuel and oil systems then had a go at starting her up. Result.... a big fat no start. Realise that the fuel pumps aren't running and there is no spark when cranking. I'd only forgotten to plug the ECU in! (Muppet) Had another go and still no fuel pumps running or spark, tracked this down to the hall sender in the ABF distributer I'd fitted not working, quickly swapped this over and she ran!

I though, but celebration was shortlived, the braided fuel hose running up the back of the engine bay to the filter gave up after about 5 minutes and a large puddle of petrol appeared very quickly. Killed the ignition and reached for the large fire extinguisher nearby, fortunately it wasn't needed, so I now need to strip the fuel lines off the car and get them remade in something that will stand Kjet pressures.
Still plenty more to do,
Get the engine running again
Get a new headlining before I can get the glass and interior back in.
Refit bodykit and panels once I've stopped messing about with mechanical stuff.
Get some paint defects sorted and the whole thing mopped.
Get a VIC organised.
MOT, tax and insure
Drive and enjoy for the summer I hope. I want to try and get this finished for the end of May.