Once the lugs were cut away, it would be fairly easy to work the backplate down smooth with a file. It takes a bit of time, but patience and an drawfile will turn rough castings into nice smooth pieces of furniture for muzzleloaders. The backplate was likely worked down the same way.

There are telltale signs of the brass plating on the sides of the fuel nipples. The backplates are not brass - if you have an older COX engine with the metal backplate, scratch the surface - the plating comes off easily revealing the underlying gray metal.

On another note, we have a tendency to overmount our engines - the added mounting bolts on the PeeWee could have been two screw sizes smaller and still be overengineered.

andrew