im looking at getting this older car, but the clear coat is peeling off. is there a good solution to this? and the "Heater core" needs fix/replaced.

 

Ther is nothing to repair clear coat pealing but to have it sanded with about 400 grit wet sand paper and be recleared. Heater core if there is a problem with it just replace with a good one from the salvage yard.

 

will that damage the actual paint? I've had to do some touch ups before, but this is basically the whole car. are heater cores difficult to install? i googled it for a bit, and it looks like the dashboard has to come out to access it.

i havent bought it yet. my brother owns a jetta and is pretty enthusiastic about it (made him a VW fan). so he's encouraging me to get it, however i live in northern mi and it does get cold, so i would have to replace the heater core, before snowfall.

thanks for the input.

 

It will scuff the paint so, I would advise to have atleast one or two coats of the paint applied then two or three good coats of clear and make sure that they don't use any finer grit paper than 400 to 500 otherwise the paint wont stick well. As for the heater core the are usually not fun but, MI gets cold and need to have heat.