Finished making the adapters for my Harbor Freight engine stand using the following supplies:
4x 3/8" fender washers
3x 3/8" washers
1x 3/8" nut
1x 3/8"*5" bolt
1x 100mm M10x1.5 bolt
1x 3/8"*3" black pipe nipple (cut in half)
The longest M10 bolt Home Depot had was 100 mm, which meant that the longest standoff I could use was 1.5 inches. Cutting the pipe nipple into two 1.375 inch halves with a hacksaw met all the requirements at lowest cost. I decided to add some washers between the pipe and the engine case to avoid the pipe wall crushing into the softer magnesium. This meant I had to take my cut off wheel and cut a flat off of two washers to clear the transmission bell housing flange. By happy accident this meant that the washers held themselves on during assembly. I followed the car specs and torqued the upper bolt to 18 ft pounds and the lower bolt to 22 ft pounds (Tom Wilson, pg. 167) rather than the 25 ft pound Accessory Cover spec given in the Revmaster and AeroVee manuals.
Looks like I successfully avoided buying a $58 stand specific to the VW (and waiting for shipping)!
https://youtu.be/6XYRjYUATv0https://aapistons.com/products/bench-mount-engine-stand