Thank you for that, I did give it a quick sanding, then I glued heat shrink tube to the handle and it came out with a rubber coating, almost identical to the leather look. It doesn't scratch and feels good in the hand, but cutting the back out was a little frustrating, no more so than vinyl heat shrink, and works ok and its all-clipped back in.
I'll take some photos soon and upload them. I think I could have done a better job with the glue, but its firm and unless your nose is up against it, it looks part of the car.
Back soon with a few pics