Firstly, the major consideration of this build was (and is) bang for the buck. I did my homework and was patient and was able to build the car inexpensively, right about $1500 including purchase price of the bug. The car isn't too pretty but I mostly use it for trail bashing so I don't care (don't ask my fiancee's neighbors what they think of the car though).
OK, on to the details! About 5 years ago I purchased a '71 Standard bug and drove it home for $400. Nothing really wrong with it, but it did have an amateur repaint with some obvious runs and the rear had been hit (lightly) so I didn't feel bad about cutting it up. It had some Riviera wheels that had been color matched to the car, and a somewhat-hotted motor with dual carbs and aftermarket exhaust.
For bodywork, I emulated the Emory baja bug - it saved me the dollars and time of trying to fit a 'glass kit. I built a class 5-style front bumper and skidplate, and bought some chrome headlight buckets for the stock headlights (they were HID conversions the PO had done), and mounted the buckets to the bumper. I cut the rear fenders just enough so that I still have the taillights in their stock locations. The majority of the hood and engine compartment is still there, since the bug is going to get used in mud about as often as sand and I would like the engine to stay as clean as possible.
I was able to mount my offroad tires on the Riviera wheels so saved some cash there. Also, my friend's dad had a pair of snow tires and rims that had been left on his property that he was going to throw away, turns out they were fairly new 235/75/15's that still had 30psi in them, so I paid to have them swapped onto the rear wheels of my Bug. For fronts I bought a pair of used 215/75/15 from the local tire store, and hammered the lip on the pan and fenderwell for tire clearance during tight turns.
I'd done quite a bit of research on Bajas before actually going ahead with the project, so one thing I knew I wanted was a Bus engine and tranny. A couple weeks after buying the bug I scored an '81 Vanagon that ran great, with low miles but that had been sideswiped for another $400. I put the engine and transaxle from the Vanagon into the Bug and sold the bug engine/transaxle for $275.
I kept the factory L-jet on the engine when I swapped it into the bug, which not only saved money on buying a carb+manifold kit but EFI is nicer than a carb for so many reasons... the EFI swap was actually a piece of cake with only 5 wires that needed to be spliced from the Vanagon wiring into the Bug wiring; Start, Ign, Alt, Oil, and one from the Double Relay to the fuel pump. Basically, the entire EFI harness and computer etc. just unbolts from the vanagon and comes with the engine when you pull it out, the only wires you have to actually cut are those 5. I mounted the Vanagon fuel pump and filter on the Bug pan right underneath the fuel tank so that the pump shouldn't ever run dry, even if the car ever gets to crazy angles. I used the factory fuel line and tank outlet as a return line/tank inlet, put a larger ID barb fitting in the tank for a new outlet, and ran a new metal fuel line down the tunnel. Blind Chicken Racing used this setup on their 2.3 Turbo so I figured it ought to flow enough fuel for my stock Vanagon engine
I also had to modify the Vanagon airbox since it didn't even come close to fitting into the VW engine compartment. I basically cut the AFM mating flange out of the airbox and made a new intake piping system out of ABS water pipe, and blended the intake piping into the AFM flange that I'd cut from the airbox. The entrance of the AFM is square and the airbox inlet to the AFM flange is also square (to match the AFM inlet). From the factory the airbox-to-AFM inlet is just sharply cut off inside the airbox (no bellmouth or anything), and combined with the fact that it's square i figured it would be a total airflow killer. To remedy this I took a lot of time carefully blending the junction between the square flange and the round piping to promote a nice smooth flow path for the air going through the intake piping. I have a K+N cylindrical filter handling filtration duties and due to the many STF comments about their poor filtration ability I am eventually going to fabricate a centrifugal airbox for it.I'm sure that several of you reading this sat up and took more notice as soon as you read that I used a Vanagon as a transaxle donor. How did I deal with the side-shifter, you are asking yourselves. I thought about the shifter issue for a very, very long time and read a lot of posts and websites. I was originally going to swap the nosecone and other associated parts to make it a front-shift tranny, but found out that after all of that I would spend more time and almost as much money as if i had just gotten the correct tranny in the first place. Then I decided that I was going to get and modify a cable shifter from an MR2 or Fiero, but that would have ended up being a lot of work and money as well. I then figured that I would just pull the entire shifter assembly out of the Vanagon and use it as-is, but after mocking up the tranny in the frame horns it became obvious that the stock shifter rod would have to go directly through the rear torsion bar housing in order to interface with the side-shift actuator lever socket. However, after mocking it up and staring at it for a while I realized that I might be able to re-clock the shift lever on its input spline by 180 degrees so that it pointed up instead of down. That would raise the shift lever socket by about 6 inches, so that the shift rod could now go over the top of the torsion housing instead of through it. The only "drawback" to this is that the shift pattern is now turned by 180 degrees as well, IE 4th is closest to me and forward, while 1st is furthest from me and rearward. Whatever. Also like on a lot of other Bus transaxle swaps, the shift rod runs over the top of the tunnel, no biggie. I also had to pull the Vanagon shifter box and lever assembly out of the van, since a Bug-style shifter box didn't give enough throw to engage the gears. This meant shortening the Vanagon shifter by half and bending it so that it didn't interfere with the dash and steering wheel. I did also have to cut some material out of the frame horn, and had to cut the parking brake cable on the right side since it interfered with the shifter. I really should have just relocated it slightly, too late now...
I also kept the stock hydraulic clutch. I was cheap and didn't spring for an aftermarked MC or pedals, so I took the clutch MC and pedal assy out of the Vanagon and fabbed some mounts for it in the Bug. I also robbed the combination brake/MC fluid reservoir from the vanagon.
I bought a pair of Thing stubaxles so I could use all 4 Vanagon CV's, and shortened the Vanagon halfshafts so they'd fit. I'll need to get new CV boots soon since they've got some tears in them. I also put some cheap Empi coilovers on the back to compensate for the added weight and more rearward location of the engine, the car sits level now.
Future work includes making an exhaust (nobody makes an offroad exhaust for a T4 pancake engine) and then a rear bumper/skidplate once the exhaust is on the car. The rear bumper will interface with the factory rear engine mount crossbar to take stress off of the frame horns, especially now that one of them is cut up to clear the side shifter. I have a brake rebuild kit that will eventually will go on the car too.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a link to my online photo album documenting the build...
http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r294 ... raft/Baja/
If I can find a can of paint that matches closely I will probably just get another fender and cut it correctly.
