What should i do???

So I bought a 1983 mk1 tintop, its a 1.1 litre model and has retained most of its original paint which I think is gambia red, looks burgubdy to me. the car has only done 51,000 miles, it could be doing with some tlc and minor body work but is a very solid project and is hardly rusted.

when I got it I had my heart set on stripping the whole car and having a few mates help me prep it as best we could for a full respray and then have someone local finish it in vw Nepal orange. so the car has just been sitting on my drive with a tarpaulin and ratchet straps/cables. On sunday night there was some real bad wind and when I got home from work the taurp was basically off so I pulled it off and left the car uncovered, the heavy rain and wind gave it a real good clean lol. and so the last few days when ive been heading out to work in the morning I have been admiring the car, don't get me wrong the original paint will need a good mop etc.

some background info on the car is that it was stored in a huge barn with a lot of clasics, the guy was a collector, the mk1 was the last of the cars to go iinto the barn and it was a tight squeeze; so when the doors closed and were locked, the doors weren't flush so the front end of the car was subjected to the weather, a hole rusted through the original bonnet at the very front passenger side and the front panel rusted quite a bit, so the bonnet has been replaced with an oem white bonnet and I have bought a full replacement panel, other than this all panels are original and the only notable work is a 50p size hole on the front passenger wing, some damage to passenger sill probably from someone jacking the car wrongly, and a 50p size hole in bootwell but the bootwell is like new otherwise.

So now im thinking on keeping it original as it will cost me less and im thinking it may be worth more if I stick with original paint etc. I had also planned to put a 1.3 engine into from my mk2 polo breadvan as my breadvan was written off and the engine was only on 36,000 miles. im conscious that changing things will affect resale value so looking for advice, should I keep original paint/engine or would repray and engine swap be worth it?

Really depends whether it's a car you're wanting to keep for the long term or sell on to make money.  As you're on the forum I'd assume your an enthusiast, so you should do whatever you prefer, just do it to a high standard.

Look at this little beauty for inspiration:-

https://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=projects%2Fyour-mk1-golfs_2%2Fmk1-golf-cl-1-1

Yeah pistol you're right that I wont want to sell it on anytime soon, see I feel that for a full respray it'll take forever to get it done and I want it on the road for around april/may. I think I may respray it sometime which makes me think I should get it out of the way now instead of having to pull it off the road at somestage to do the work. however the red is growing on me, really unsure

I'd keep it original inc 1100 engine assuming its running fine.

Compared to GTIs, Cabrios and 20V turbo flip-flop paint maxi-P MK1s, a tidy Golf C is very rare and I think quite desirable.