Bass Bridge Mounting Plate?

Hey all,

A buddy of mine bought a Hipshot A style bridge for his beat up 80s Iron Bird, but he noticed the screw holes don't line up. I know we can fill them but I am reticent to suggest that in case he ever wanted to sell it to a collector. Do they make, or has anyone made a bridge mounting plate? I'm not sure if that is the correct terminology, but like a metal plate that screws into the body that you can then bolt the bridge to. Something to avoid changing the body.
 
I'm sure there's nothing like that commercially available, but you could make one from aluminum plate. The big question would be the thickness. It would raise the height of the Hipshot bridge. Could you get the saddles low enough to get the action in a workable range? You'd need to do some measuring to decide that. If you used 1/8" aluminum plate, and 8-32 machine screws to mount the bridge to the plate, the depth of threads through the plate would be marginal in strength. Probably okay, but marginal. Using 3/16" or 1/4" thick plate would be better for the threads, but I doubt you could raise the bridge that much.

Possible, but it would take some engineering. You'd probably be better off plugging and moving the holes in the body.