Hi all. I found this web site when I was looking for info on an adapter plate for Nissan 1400 motor to VW bell housing. This is fo my next project: my 1970 Baja (been sitting in my driveway sadly neglected for 4 years now).
I drive a bay window crew cab with a Nissan 1400, but the motor came off a non - road legal beetle built for fishing by a guy who owns a scrap yard and was complete with a (rather rough) adapter plate. The Nissan was transplanted into my Crew Cab by a friend, when the old 1600 stock motor dropped a valve 5 years ago. Luckily there is only a little clutch shudder, and only on and off, so when we do the transplant to the Beetle, we want to start with a decent adapter plate.
We had some initial problems with overheating and gearbox oil leaks, but learnt some lessons and everything is sorted now. The thing pulls like a train, and I can only imagine how the Beetle will pull with this motor.
My half bus is a bit of a rat, in that I use it all the time to lug anything and everything. I wanted a thing that's easy to keep in more or less one piece and easy to patch up as needed (a fair amount of rust, when I got it), so we replaced the vrot load bed sides with ones made up from angle and Saligna planks. After patching up the holes in the body, we spayed it with aluminium enamel, undiluted, with the stone chip gun. This took a good while to dry, but covered up some of the rough spots and isn't bad looking at all. Best of all, its really easy to patch up.
My other Beetle is a stock 1977 1600, in good shape, that was meant for my daughter, who now lives in England (long story). This one lives in the garage and is a sort of stand by. My wife is driving it at the moment, because her Toyota Avante' is sitting in the car port with rotten water hoses (I'll get it on the road tomorrow?).
The Baja needs a lot of work, apart from the coversion and I plan to start with this around the end of the year. At the moment it has a sat twin port SP motor in, with nice stainless steel 4 into 1 pipe, and I'll miss that sound with the Nissan motor, but the improved performance should make up for it. The Baja is to become my daily drive.
I have lots of plans for the Baja, but I have lots of plans for other stuff too, so the Baja project could be cut short as only the engine transpland and a decent face lift. Time will tell. Anyway, I've already picked up valuable tips just reading the forums, so this is theright place to be.
Maybe start a project thread that we all can follow. 
