Thought I would post this.
Using basic hand tools and some good old fashion redneck ingenunity. but hey, it works.

Pack the coupler body with grease. ( I use high temp wheel bearing grease) Assemble the coupler and shoes as specifed in the FSM.
To install the cover and keep a stock OE appearence , here is the best I've found yet.
Using 2 slide bar C-clamps. I happen to have the flat wrench handy but normally I use a 1" x 6" piece of plywood, but either one works.
Just pull the clamp down on the cover snuggly, Yet evenly with the 2 clamps as shown. DO NOT over tighten it. When the seal starts to squeeze out,Stop- you've gone far enough.

Lay the coupler body, ( NOT the clamps btw.) on something solid( I use a bench vice ) And with a flat chisel thats ever so slightly dulled just crimp the clips down one at a time over the small bumps in the coupler body. It's takes a decent hit to bend them but don't over do it. So start with easy hits and work your way up till your sastified with the end result. Each time make sure your chisel point is in the same spot on the clip.

Closeup

It's best to lay the body on something solid and tap the 2 clips on the narrow side of the body first, then roll it over and repeat on the opposite side.
I do them one clip at a time, but if your chisel is wide enough you may be able to do both clips at once.
Hopefully this is what you end up with.

Great tip...thanks! I'll have to save those pictures.

X2 Thanks for sharing!

Yes, good approach. Personally, I think this part is the worst aspect of Mopars if you are trying hard to have it look good when you're done (yours looks great). I really don't like the coupler cover design at all. I think it was Steer & Gear who sells a good alternative for this problem area.

Those wire clamps that used to be available OTC work very nicely, but still make it difficult to end up with a scratch free result. Its really best to put it all together and then paint, which is not what I did when I did the two I did last year.

Thanks Bill I remember when I did mine and I used a similiar set up to get it to nest properly. But these pictures are worth a thousand words.

Here is a few details of the column this one happen to be in

1970 B-body , late '69 SBD , Lynch Road plant

Never seen this before till this column . But I had a stamp made to replicate it all the same.

Maybe one or two test stamps to get the feel of it

Coupler and shaft appeared to be originally black, so thats how it went back together.

Lockout lever was plated. And the tube was left natural steel. I couldn't think of any way to remove the plating on the tube below the lever without risking the replated levers finish. So the last bit of the tube is also plated.

But just chuck the tube up in a lathe, and with progressivly finer sand paper with it turning at slow speeds. I tried to remove as many of the pits as I could.
Be advised, Grab a coke, your going to be there a while.

And the whole tube is done this way. Then treated with RPM

Sadly, this is all most people will ever see.

closest I can get to a wolf whistle....Nice work Bill!

Regarding the plating on the end of your tube, you can remove it by emersing it in meriatic acid and water, maybe 50/50 solution. It will fiss until all the plating is gone.

Gtx6970, great job on the column detail!! Even thought less than 1ft of the column is seen, it makes a world of a difference when someone looks under the dash. During a restoration, the smaller sub asemblies are probably my favorite things to do... Mostly because these items are usually overlooked.
As for the inspection stamp on the mounting plate, both Superbirds that I restored had a similar stamp that was in orange.

Justin
"CornDog"