This one really tickled my fancy, it's similar to one of my "bucket list" projects. My first car was a '59 23 window Microbus, wish I'd never gotten rid of it now. If I only knew THEN what I know now. I keep telling myself someday I'm gonna build me a mid-engine pickup out of a clapped out shell of a VW bus - but it's GOTTA be a split-windshield. I've even invested in a couple of 1/24 sale models of the donor vehicles, and when the urge strikes me I work on the drawings to be sure it can be done. (So far it looks doable.)
At one time I had planned on building a mid-engine V6 into a shortened bus, I even started building a model of it. Everything was looking good until I had to take 6 scale inches out of each of the bucket seats to get them to fit beside the engine. I gave that idea up since it would be kind of hard to take 6 inches out of the width of my butt.
The latest version will use a 1.6L I4, actually it's the engine out my '73 Datsun pickup, but that's another story.
Don