Hello
Just a few thoughts to add to the discussion.
It has been suggested that the plate could flex if bolted in and that welding will prevent this. I don't see the logic behind this - the flex will be occuring due to the master cylinders being mounted in the middle of the plate and the plate will be deforming in the middle. Welding around the outside of the same plate will not help things. The plate can be thickened to stiffen it up, an alternatice would be to add a strengthening rib down the back to add some depth to the plate.
With regard to the accident side of things, in the frontal impact plane, a thicker plate will help the anti-penetration side of things from the front. In a side impact, the section will be stiffened because you have 'closed' out the section, a similar thing could be done with a diagonal brace. However, with a bolted in plate you have closed out the section - but with a different set of loads path, the maximum load being dictated by the tearing of the bolts through the plate.
I don't want to teach anyone to suck eggs, but people often think that making something thicker will make it stiffer. This is often not the case. It is down to the second moment of area and generally adding 'depth' in the direction the stiffness is required will have a much much greater affect.
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