Ok Marky, don't you worry about asking questions m8. It's the only way to learn
Let's explain things in basic terms here . . .
Tinware is all the metal stuff that surrounds the engine to allow the cooling air from the fan to cool the engine down hence Air-Cooled
Your missing the section that goes around the pully and either side of engine. It's a big bit like in the picture below with heat exchanger feed pipes at either side.

The 2 pipes I mentioned push air through exhaust heat exchangers which supply heating into the car and are opened by the lever near the handbrake as Mark mentioned via a cable to each heat exchanger flap.
The heat exchangers are basically an exhaust pipe with fins and another pipe around it so only fresh hot air can enter the car
The choke on your engine is electric and will stay on for approx 60 secs when ignition is turned on and then go of as engine warms up.
Word of advice, when someone selling a car says it's just had a full service that usually means it's never been touched for 12 months
I would check the distributor cap inside to make sure it looks like new etc.
Word of warning here. DO NOT overtighten spark plugs as they can strip the threads in the soft aluminium heads very easy and always make sure they go back in by HAND at least several turns before using a ratchet to nip them up as it's very easy to cross thread them
Don't be afraid to ask anything no matter how simple and get yourself a VW 1600 Beetle manual off eBay so you have some referance points.
The book by John Muir I mentioned in your intro is very good.
Hope this helps

_________________
Darren Parker
Club Technical Advisor & Site AdminWebSites
www.covin.co.uk - - & - - www.vwkd.co.uk - - & - - www.flat4dubs.co.uk
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