Man its cool to see all the 64-65 cultass content recently.
As you may know the column on a 64 is a straight shaft. I have a spare gm collapsable shaft. I was thinking about using a round to DD straight coupler, and then changing the rag joint out with a universal joint with the correct spline to go to the steering box.

I'd like to hear your thoughts here. The coupler would be welded in and the univesal joint would be the style that uses set screws. Both are avaliable through Borgeson.

 

I would leave the straight column shaft in.

 

My concern was just safety. Having not grown up in an era where most people drive cars of this vintage I have to rely on anecdotal evidence

steering columns hitting you in the chest is something I’ve always heard would happen in a crash. While I don’t plan on getting into a wreck….. have you seen how everyone else drives

 

If you really want to install a collapsible column, I would use a 1967 setup. That way, you know the collapsing mechanisms were designed and tested for that body shell and frame configuration. Yeah, a later column will probably work, but there's always the question of what's different in the install. For example, the lower clamp that holds the column to the underside of the metal part of the dash has aluminum inserts that are designed to distort as part of the energy absorbing function. There are also features in the column itself that collapse, not just in the lower shaft. The whole thing is designed to operate as a system.

I'll be honest, I went through a similar thought process when I first put my 62 on the road. The reality is that given the limited number of miles that I drive the car and the conditions under which I drive it, the actual risk from the solid steering shaft is pretty small.

Yeah, part of my day job is risk assessment in spacecraft and launch vehicle projects.

 

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense