After much discussion with a service rep at Classic Parts I ordered the repop version of the mast bearing. ...but to make up for the money saved, I added a new steering wheel to the order.
From the way the rep described it, the repop is made of identical materials and, other than the NOS version looking like it sat on a shelf for +/-60yrs, he can't see any difference.
Also, Classic Parts is in KC, MO and I'm in St.L so it's local-ish and he said just to call them if I had any issues down the road.
