VW Thing - would this be crazydumb?

Why not ?

It’s very cheap, you can’t really lose money unless the floorpan is shot through with rust, parts ARE available and it’s easy to fix. If you can swing a wrench, you can fix just about anything on that car.

But having said all that, it’s not the most practical car, the gas heaters are always pants even when they work, but if you are using this for a jolly and don’t live in Alaska, go for it.

Give it a rub over when you get bored and post it on EBay, you can’t really lose can you ?