Tilt conversion questions

[Solver]

Working on converting somr tilt columns and had a couple of questions for anyone who has done this.

Question 1.
How do you get the old style firewall gromet and metal ring off the old column and on to new tilt column? Are you just hacksawing the metal ring and razor knifing the rubber gromet?
Hate to totally diassemble old column to get these off and not sure if I could get them on new column without total disassembly to clear shifter linkage.