4Mo Belly pan/Weather-guard

[Dyldo]

howdy all

I drove to work yesterday, and just before parking i hear a scraping sound. Turns out my transmission guard (inner left wheel guard) has fallen off. I was running late so looks like the mouldings around the screws have shredded themselves too thin. I didn't get a good look as i was running late.

Now this morning, I drive in to work in the same way and find out my lower front lip is falling off. this caused my own lip to drop what the frak is going on here?

I'd say this is a relatively easy fix so long as the mounting points are still intact for all these trashy plastic bits, but it also got me thinking about these juicy things:

Mk4 Panzer Plate heavy duty aluminum skid plate kit for all mid 1999 through mid 2005 Jetta sedan and wagon 1999 through 2006 Golf GTI and 2004 R32 by www.dieselgeek.com

Volkswagen Jetta IV VR6 24v > Exterior > Skid Plate > ES#9763 Genuine VW European Steel Skid Plate - 1J0698930

Volkswagen Jetta IV VR6 24v > Exterior > Body > Belly Pan > ES#259694 MK4 24V VR6 Weather Protection Package - Stage 2 - 1J0825005

The Panzer plate admittedly weighs 10kgs, but looks the goods. It apparently can also act like a lower front stress bar.
The ECS one probably weighs more, given it is steel, but looks better (black) and is vented for airflow goodness.
The ECS plastic weather kit looks good too and is light-weight.

[goodfella]

I know PaulD bought a skidplate earlier this year for his R32... ask him about it!

[Speed]

The ECS one probably weighs more, given it is steel, but looks better (black) and is vented for airflow goodness.

Might not be that heavy. No where near as thick a guage as the Panzer alloy one.

If I had to choose from one of these it would be the bigger ECS one.
Has vents, is moulded to your car and gives better protection than OEM.

[Dyldo]

Might not be that heavy. No where near as thick a guage as the Panzer alloy one.

If I had to choose from one of these it would be the bigger ECS one.
Has vents, is moulded to your car and gives better protection than OEM.

Now, if you were going to buy a new belly plate, would you buy the one that was moulded (not sure of the mould benefit other than looks) and albeit lighter? Or go for the heavier gauge panzer plate? If their costs are the same, which I think they relatively are, then I might go the panzer plates with the side protectors as well. i mean, heck, if you're going to do it then do it right, right?

Although, anything from ECS is awesome, and it'd be an easy excuse to slot it into the next ECS Group Buy.
Manaz/Goodfella - June/July perhaps?

By the way, the two side screws gave way today on my way home, and so i had about 16 people on my 80km drive home flash me or tell me about it at lights. Was mucho annoyingo!! So unless i want to put it back on for long-term, i might just buy a new plate. happy days.

[Manaz]

Let us get this GB out of the way (too late to be included, sorry guys). Might arrange a skidplate GB afterwards (any GBs from now on will be significantly smaller than this one, let me tell you!).

[Speed]

Now, if you were going to buy a new belly plate, would you buy the one that was moulded (not sure of the mould benefit other than looks) and albeit lighter? Or go for the heavier gauge panzer plate? If their costs are the same, which I think they relatively are, then I might go the panzer plates with the side protectors as well. i mean, heck, if you're going to do it then do it right, right?

Being moulded to fit around your engine means that it doesn't hang any lower in the bay than it should.
It also looks the goods and not like a foreign special and lets not forget that it has vents.

The panzer plate (IMO) looks home made and requires modification to you side splash panels.
"The modifications required to allow use of your existing side plastic splash shields are easy to do and should take 15 minutes maximum by simply cutting them with a hack saw."

If they are similar in price, wouldn't you want a direct bolt in as opposed to something that you then have to use a hack saw to "modify" your OEM items?
Strange way of doing it right if you ask me.

[Lonewolf1983]

I agree, I'd much rather the OEM look and fit of something designed for it.
Wouldnt underestimate the importance of cooling in the engine bay too, I think i'll go for one of these as the coilovers are quite low and the sump is just asking for damage.

[tigger19]

If we end up getting a GB on skid-plates - I'd look at it. I got one of the plastic ones last year and already it has cracked (stupid speed humps at work- even at 5kmph!) According to the ECS site the ES#9763 won't be available until end of June anyway - so I guess I can wait.