Should i torque the heads as a matter of course? good or bad idea...

Depends what you mean by torque the heads - they certainly should be checked occasionally and torqued up to the correct torque of 2.0 - 2.3 kgm - 14-17lbft.

I believe you are supposed to back them off first then tighten up to the correct figures.

The sequence is Upper Front, Upper Rear then Lower Nut.

Ben,
its not really necessary as a regular maintenance thing but wont do any harm to do them now so you know they are right. Crack off the nuts by 1/4 turn and re tourque as above.

Do you do engine work or is it all body work stuff on the VWs?

Do you still get the steel shims/head gasket things with recon heads or the recon engines ? if so do you have any 1600 ones you havn't got round to putting in the bin?....they are a perfect fit on the base of Citroen barrels for making low comp engines.

I had a box of them but gave some away and binned the rest when i stopped messing with VWs

Sean