Steering column purchase & install.

I used an entire column from my '71 VW donor car.  It has a non-skewer collapsible column.  There are lots of spacers/bushings inside the outer column.  I used the key/steering wheel lock portion but others have removed it.  Not sure if earlier non-collapsible outer columns are the same size.  I've seen the spacers/bushings available new but not the outer column.  Some one near by must have an outer column? I think a used outer column would be best starting point.

I used the OEM rag joint.  Avoid the red poly ones as the readily break.  Later Super Beetles use the knuckles - they look nicer but more work.

Parts source - VW Bug Steering Column (heritagepartscentre.com)

Ididit … is a column maker IM has used a lot.

If you're going to use an old VW crush cage, you need to strip the paint and crack check it with dye.

The failure rate on those old crush-cages is a lot higher than you might think it is.

Check it really well, your life depends on it.

x2 on what Danny said.  Our very own @MikelB has such failure but the fates were smiling on him tat day.  The failure occurred just as he was attempting to park the car after a day of extremely technical driving in the Smokies.  It could have been ugly.

If it was me, I'd stay far away from one of those crush cages.  Metal fatigue is an insidious thing.

Bought a brand new one of eBay. Hopefully it's OK and gives around 10 inches or so of crush room, just in case.

After my failure I had the column sleeved to eliminate the crush portion.

My failure occurred after a full day of serious twists and turns and just by the grace of God it failed while parking the car at the hotel. This design was done for a car with narrow tires and higher tire pressures. I believe the lower tire pressures and bigger tires we run on these cars puts a lot more twisting moment/torque on this device which will over time fatigue it and it will fail.

I guess He was watching you this time not from a distance as the song goes.   it does point out that old technology after 50 years has its failure points that we have to keep in mind. I’m not sure what I did Builders use but in the end, IM used the new ididit column,

@MikelB posted:

This design was done for a car with narrow tires and higher tire pressures. I believe the lower tire pressures and bigger tires we run on these cars puts a lot more twisting moment/torque on this device which will over time fatigue it and it will fail.

Maybe, but I feel like we give manufacturers and factories a lot more credit than we should.

My son had an engineering job in undercarriage at Caterpillar Tractor Company for a couple of years in "HEX" (hydraulic excavators). The hydraulic excavator market has a lot of competition, and is somewhat price conscious. Now, Cat has been in business for a long, long time, and long ago knew how to make tracks last for many, many years… but it's expensive to be the best, and being the best doesn’t always translate into making the most money.

What Cat doesn't know is how much they can cheapen things up before they fail "prematurely" (within the warranty), which is what Wall Street and the analysts are looking for. My son had the job of looking for places to cut before they cut too much.

This was not done in a lab, it was done in the field. Big operators would get track for a discounted rate, and run it until it broke. Mike went around the country looking at broken or worn track, and around the world looking for some 3rd world hell-hole where they'd make a shoe or pin $2 cheaper than some other 3rd world hell-hole. The job was a stepping stone, but as you can imagine -- he didn't like it very much.

On the other end of the spectrum -- Tesla is (apparently) developing their miracle self-driving "autopilot" software by throwing it out there, and seeing how many people die to determine how they might make it better (or not).

"Your wife and only child plowed into an overturned semi? Sorry about that -- but you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette. And look -- we made some programming changes to a couple lines of code, so their lives were not cut short for nothing. Our stock price went up 2% today."

Which brings us to the crush cage in question. I'm not sure, or even confident, or even persuaded that VW did much beyond design a cage that looked like it ought to crush and probably wouldn't tear within a time-frame they thought was responsible. Remember -- this was a time when we all took a lot more risk. People rode in the back of pickups, nobody wore seatbelts, everybody rode bikes without helmets, and kids roller-skated without being padded up like an NFL running back. If those Sainted Germans did any testing at all, it was to determine the cage would actually crush, since that was the primary objective. Nobody was designing this to last 70 years.

We get the picture of serious looking German guys with clipboards, scowling and wearing lab coats, with a mechanized gizmo twisting back and forth and back and forth on a crush-cage. We see the Sainted German Engineers feverishly writing something down (their lunch order perhaps?), and talking about getting better (Swedish?) steel, and alloying it with nickel mined from Mt. Doom, and heat-treating with tears of a unicorn.

I'd bet $100 the guy in charge drew the crush cage up and said, "that oughta' do it" and sent it to pre-production to make sure it would indeed crush in the event of a head-on. It did, and the steering column no longer impaled the driver, so off it went to production.

And here we are.

"Nickel mined from Mt Doom and heat treated with tears of a unicorn" ........Priceless !!

They didn’t want to be reminded of an old torture technique.

Techniques used by Vlad the Impaler? 22,000 Ottomans lined the road - first psychological warfare!

As were the Babylonians ;0 )

@Ventura356
The safest columns (IMO) are those used with a center-mounted rack and pinion steering.  The column centerline is offset from the rack centerline and connected with one or more intermediate shafts connected with U-joints, so under a front collision the steering column stays put and doesn’t slam the steering wheel into the driver’s head and chest - Just ask @Lane Anderson

To answer your specific questions:

I purchased one of the collapsible columns already but I'm curious can I use any Volkswagen tube to slide that column into?

Not precisely, and the later columns and shafts (with the key on the column and the crush cage) have attachments on the shaft for the column lock when the key is removed, so there may be some interference with an earlier column.   It is easiest to match the shaft to the column, but @chines1 probably has messed with most of them and would have a better answer.

Also it appears some people use the U joint type set up and other people don't.    See above.

Also seems like there's horn issues which I'll read about later.

There are at least two+ different horn circuits used by VW over the years, so it’s best to decide on a shaft and column and then look at horn circuit alternatives.  

I have a Nardi steering wheel, not sure if that matters.

Nope.  Many of us have a Nardi.  You must choose a hub adapter to fit your steering shaft and your Nardi.   Done.

Also bought the Volkswagen bus turn signal switch just recently (which is missing some parts).   Is there a good place to buy those little things?

Google “VW Bus Parts” and follow the hits (But you already knew that…). There is a whole culture of “Bus People” out there.

"The safest columns (IMO) are those used with a center-mounted rack and pinion steering.  The column centerline is offset from the rack centerline and connected with one or more intermediate shafts connected with U-joints, so under a front collision the steering column stays put and doesn’t slam the steering wheel into the driver’s head and chest - Just ask @Lane Anderson."

I believe the early VW-suspension Becks (like my Speedster) had a different solution to the collapsible column, but that was not a factor in my accident as there was no damage to the frame or suspension.  If the fuel line hadn't been cut where it came off the tank, the car would have been drivable.

Yeah, Lane's facial impact was 100% attributable to lap belts only. Nothing more.

Gordon, stay out of Lane's lane. LOL!

Gordon:

Good explanation, Gordon.  Potential steering column injuries in these cars aren't something to look forward to.

I like how the steering column is set up in my speedster.  I assume Porsche came up with this centred arrangement to use in both left and right hand cars.

Any little thing that helps to minimize injury in these plastic toys is appreciated.