Mounting Custom Autosound radio - anyone have this?

[davepl]

I'm trying to mount a Custom Autosound radio in way that looks stock; there are plenty of threads on whether its a good unit or if you should cut the dash, let's leave that side because it's been done to death.

The two issues I'm facing are that (a) it includes a faceplate, which is dumb because if I wanted a full faceplate I'd just install some junk two-post radio, but more important is

(b) even with the faceplate the knob shafts are so long (insert obvious joke here) that the knobs are 1/2" or more out from the dash surface. Every photo I've seen of these online is a direct face-on, so I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or they consider that OK.

Put another way, if you look at it from the side, you see the threaded shaft. But even if you adjust the mounting depth so that just enough thread is visible to engage the nut, there's still a bunch of exposed shaft.

The factory radio has a cupped washer to mount it, which I've tried to incorporate, but no luck.

Has anyone run into this specific issue before? If so, did you solve it?