Well - I've been doing a ton of stuff, little by little. The engine is in, the fuel and electrical is hooked up. Brakes are bled and should work (they work when on jackstands). Got a battery, got the gas tank all cleaned up and installed.

I can't get the damn thing to work at all. No lights, no horn, starter doesn't crank. Nothing. All the fuses are new. Everything is hooked up to the fuse block. Brand new battery, it's hooked up correctly. All the wiring to the engine is correct.

What am I missing? I'm frustrated

Recheck the ground, disconnect it, use a grinder, something.... to make sure it's on bare metal.
Just my 0.02

You mean the ground strap to the battery? Good Idea, I'll clean up both ends.

I think power to the key is fed from the gen/alt make sure the wires are good there as well.
There should be a wire from the starter to the gen/alt.

I think Doug is onto something.

VW like to run a hot from the batt pos to the starter and that goes to the key switch, its that spade connector on your starter. Most starters have 2-3 spade terminals, and if you connect to the wrong one nothing will happen, I did that accidentally when I re-wired Chuck's notch

Somebody give Duane a gold star. He was right

I removed the ground strap and cleaned the hell out of it for about 30 minutes, then I cleaned the clamp on the positive side and, cha-ching! electrical works and the starter turns. Kids are in bed so I couldn't try to fire it up, it was about 9:30 PM. But, the starter turns. I'll try to fire it tomorrow.

Woot!

Nice.

Sweet! Now fire that b up!