To start with I had a Ford Taurus 3.0 liter engine and transmission that I had swapped out for a 3.8 liter. 

My Brother traded them for a pickup truck, then gave me his rolled and smashed up 87 Suzuki Samurai.  

My neighbor had a 69 VW Bug that he was selling the pan off of, and he did not want the body.  So the ideas started to roll in.  I did some measuring. 

The engine in the Samurai is very close to the front of the frame.

The height of the radiator is about 1/8th of an inch shorter then the hood.  So it fit perfectly too.  I did bend it back a little bit to give it a little more clearance, not much though.  The fan still has to clear the radiator.  Fitting so nice might also have to do with the fact that the radiator cap is crushed down a little from the roll.  But if needed the radiator mounts could easily be modified.

The wheel base of the Samurai was about 14.5 inches shorter.

Probably the best thing is that the track from outside of wheel to outside of wheel of the Samurai was exactly the same as the bug, or very close to it.  So I knew that I could build it and it would be easy to make it legal with out to many modifications right off.

With the small engine there is still some leg room under the dash.  This enabled the use of the standard Bug dash and steering column. 

The seat is a little far back, but it is not uncomfortable.

I did change the steering wheel because the original almost hit the gearshift when in 1st gear.  I also mounted the standard Samurai Instrument panel in the bug dash.  This was to make the project easier to begin with.  I will probably put in custom gages in the future to make it look neater.