Does anyone have pics of the fixture or work-holding while machining the crank to fit the TDI setup? I just want to confirm some ideas that I have in order to do it in the shop at school. PM me if needed.
Definitely a viable alternative (strange that a search did not yield this topic) and is worth considering. I'll go into the shop at school and see what I can cobble together.
Worst case I might make a pair of custom V-blocks to hold the crank and reference it with flywheel bolts. However, the weird bolt pattern that VW has might throw me off a bit.