95 steering column questions

[bloertcher]

Hey all,needing a little help on my 95 k3500 that I'm building.
The chassis is originally a 94,I bought a 95 2wd 5 speed and transplanted the cab and front clip.
Somewhere along the life of the truck,someone butchered the heck out of the stock column,due to losing the keys.(I checked all the vin tags,the title matches the truck)
I'm not having any luck finding a column in the local you pull a part,due to it being a manual transmission truck.
My question is,can I use a column from an automatic truck,remove the shift lever,and put the plastic covers from my original column on it?Has anyone else ever been in this predicament before?It seems that by 1995,a manual transmission was about as common as a unicorn.

[bloertcher]

I'm assuming nobody has attempted this.Going to get a coloumn saturday,I'll share the results.