Anyone mod'ed a vintage style lipstick pickup to top mount?

[Gone Fission]

So I got a pickup out of the junk drawer for the first time in years because I have a good use for it at last. So of course, issues.

I'm pretty sure that it's from a 90s era Danelectro Hodad guitar. Lipstick "humbucker" designed to be mounted to the back of a hollow Masonite body. The mounting tabs of the base plate are under the coils, and way deep.

So I have options in mind. I could try to force the current baseplate ears up and out with a pliers so I could get some screws in from the top. I could try to make my own base plate, remount the tubes to it, and take care of a ground plane to ground the tubes to. I could try to repurpose a dog-ear P-90 base plate, which would be about exactly the right size. Or I could just remount them like two separate single coils--just a bit more effort once I have a plan of remounting.

Anyone been here, done this?