Reply to "Under dash loose connection steering"

I was at Dennis Quella's Pantera Performance shop this Spring. While touring the facility, I inquired if he had any of the original nylon parts that take up the slack in the column. He replied, "Probabaly and why would i want them?" Getting to the point; Dennis said that he welds the shafts together so as to eliminate all play. He reminded me that the column was not Pantera specific and showed me how the column is not physically able to collapse it the Pantera application anyway. Thus by welding, there is no safety feature being compromised.
Unfortunately, I do not recall the design specifics he pointed out; although, his demonstration convinced me that he was accurate.