Volkswagen Repair: 1961bugtranny, swing axle, car drives

Question
i am buying a 1961, 1600cc vw bug.  owner says does not go into 1st gear, but all other gears work.  i have always done my own car repairs, i would like to know the difficulty level of replacing a swing axle transmission? the car drives now, could i possibly drive temporarily without 1st gear? thank you for any help you could possibly give me. thanks!!!

Answer
Travis, Thank you for your question.  First, the replacing the transmission is not extremely hard as long as you have the Bentley manual for a 1961.  You will also have to get a manual for a 1970- 1979 for the 1600cc since the 61 came with a 1200 or 1300cc engine.  You can run with starting in second gear but you run a strong chance of burning up the clutch.  The best thing to do is to feather the clutch when taking off in second.  But as far as how long the clutch will last is a very big question mark.  It could last 2 weeks, a month, 6 months or 6 minutes.  You can try putting it in to first by shutting off the engine then restarting with the clutch in.  
Hope that helps