Someone at the samba suggested removing the steering column from inside the car to clerance the coupler so i could undo it with just removing the brackets. I couldn’t figure it out so proceeded to cut the rivits but here is a good explanation on how to do it for next time.
Here is the cage in question which I think is to big to fit up inside the car.
johneliot posted this in response to my problem in the samba forum
If you want to move the column towards the interior, you’ll need to take off the cage. That cage is vw’s safety feature. In a frontal crash it will collapse. That plate on the top is held on by two tangs. They are rubber covered. If you straighten them that plate will slide off the top of the cage. The cage should then fit into that hole in the “firewall”.
John
So for next time I’ll definitely try that method..