On another note, the seats are horribly uncomfortable.
Obviously you haven't done road trips in a pre-1985 VW lol. Now THOSE seats are uncomfortable. I currently have '91 seats in my '84 and love em.
I feel the need to argue here

. My '82 was missing a seat so I swipped some from a '80 and they're sooooo comfortable!!
In '06 I did a round trip to Idaho and in Jan '07 I took 5 days to drive to wisconsin. I lived in the car, sleeping on the passenger seat....and yes it was cold

. Then in april I drove back home and it was a blast.
I have a few questions...
1. I can't decide between Koni, Bilstein, KYB, and Sachs shocks. I know Bilstein is different to the others in terms of performance, but I want to know if it's really worth getting them.
2. Theres a water leak that soaks the rear floor of the passenger side. The window seal has a massive gap in it where water could easily leak down into the door, so could the water puddle be due to this issue or is it something else?
I've only used the sachs, I can say that they're junk. I got two years out of 'em and could tell they were dying but squeezed another year out before changing 'em.
I've heard good things about bilstein and I'm gonna save my pennies to buy a set when these napa struts go south.....
For the water leak, is the carpet at the front damp? It can pool at the rear if it is coming from the windshield. Other-wise, dry the carpet out as well as you can with a shopvac and get a hose and start soaking different areas outside the car to see if you can find where it is coming from. As mentioned before, make sure all the factory drain holes in the door and rockers are unplugged.