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I really don't understand the need to use 14g - it is as you say difficult to bend. 16g should be more than sufficient for most chassis and strengthening plates with 18-20g for bodywork. Are you expecting the tranny tunnel to take impact loads from the prop or clutch? If so, you might be better off with a retraint hoop around the prop and a kevlar blanket around the clutch. I would have thought that a box section 14g tranny tunnel to have been weaker than a bent 16g one. The box tunnel will have the highest stresses at the corners whereas with a bent section these stresses are distributed around the sheet. the other problem you will have with plain sheet is the one of noise. The flat sheets will vibrate in harmony with the vibrations from the engine/trans/road. It would have been better to add folds to the sheet to cut down the frequency at which the sheet will be in sympathetic harmony. Again, a 16g sheet would have been more than ample for the job there.
Clive
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