The bonnet catches need holes for the main shaft and to be held in place by screws from the exterior. Screwing straight against the fibreglass might work in theory but it would look awful and might be hard to make sure everything has a sufficiently large radius to be safe. To solve both problems I decided to fabricate some chunky, rounded escutcheons.

I started with an old cast aluminium TV stand, and cut out a couple of short sections that were about the right thickness. Then I rounded off the cut ends, …

chopped TV stand

… rounded off the sides …

rounded blank

… and used several, progressively finer grades of sandpaper …

sanded blank

… before drilling and counter-sinking …

partially drilled escutcheon

… and finally applying a couple of layers of lacquer.

finished escutcheon

I’m quite pleased with how they turned out in the end.

Slightly less glamorous is the removable handle for opening and closing the catches. It’s definitely just a place-holder until I can sort out something more appealing!

handle