Welcome Don.
I think shaving the dash gives the car a retro look. I filled the dash vent holes, O-sphit handle, and ash tray. I moved the light, wiper, emergency switches to where the ash tray was. I kept the stereo hole, but opened it up a little for DIN size. The gauges are in a custom insert the same size as the stock recess.
I axed the fresh air box and filled the hood vent -- kept the wing windows. With the chrome strip, VW logo, and wiper washer nozzle gone the front looks real clean.
Another clean up item is the lisense plate cover -- filled the holes and moved the lisense plate to the bumper. Used LED bolt lights to light the plate. Also, filled the volkswagen logo holes from the deck lid.
Depending on your exhaust plans you could fill the pee shooter slots in the rear apron.
Chrome trim stipes -- removed and filled.
Antenna hole -- yes, use a "stealth" internal antenna mounted to rear glass.
Front turn signals -- yes, move to bumper and consider New Beetle side markers (not very ratty tho).
Here
pictures of my work in progress (wider fenders w/o spacers yet).
I think shaved door handles, hinges, and rain gutter look sweet too.
Obviously, make sure your body man welds up the fill spots (vs hack bondo globs). Also, now is the time to deal with the rust -- check heater channels, door bottoms, quarter panel bottoms, floor pans, etc. and deal with it now (unless you're going for a GL rust bucket look
).
I was amazed at how much rust was under the hood/deck seal channels. I removed the channels and used the Mexican seals that clip onto the hood/deck lid rim -- cleans up the look of the engine bay without the rubber strip.
Enjoy,
Bill