One thing to think about when deciding how strong you want the pan to be: Should it be strong enough to survive a hard hit and the mounting bolts become the weakest link and strip out or break if you hit hard enough. Or a thinner pan that will be destroyed with ease but be sacrificial and maybe save the mount points. Mine thin one has lasted for a few years now and does have some dents and scrapes but so far so good. I like the tape idea and maybe could put a small plate of some sort between the reservoir and the tape. Even hard plastic would be better than what we have stock.