diff --git a/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config.go b/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config.go
index 77b7ffa0e..3e4b9b879 100644
--- a/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config.go
+++ b/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config.go
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ package ovf
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"net/url"
+	"os"
 	"strings"
 
 	vboxcommon "github.com/hashicorp/packer/builder/virtualbox/common"
@@ -101,6 +103,14 @@ func NewConfig(raws ...interface{}) (*Config, []string, error) {
 		if err != nil {
 			errs = packer.MultiErrorAppend(errs, fmt.Errorf("source_path is invalid: %s", err))
 		}
+		// file must exist now.
+		fileURL, _ := url.Parse(c.SourcePath)
+		if fileURL.Scheme == "file" {
+			if _, err := os.Stat(fileURL.Path); err != nil {
+				errs = packer.MultiErrorAppend(errs,
+					fmt.Errorf("source file needs to exist at time of config validation: %s", err))
+			}
+		}
 	}
 
 	validMode := false
diff --git a/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config_test.go b/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config_test.go
index 980c4d4ef..5e67b242d 100644
--- a/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config_test.go
+++ b/builder/virtualbox/ovf/config_test.go
@@ -65,15 +65,15 @@ func TestNewConfig_sourcePath(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("should error with empty `source_path`")
 	}
 
-	// Okay, because it gets caught during download
+	// Want this to fail on validation
 	c = testConfig(t)
 	c["source_path"] = "/i/dont/exist"
 	_, warns, err = NewConfig(c)
 	if len(warns) > 0 {
 		t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", warns)
 	}
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %s", err)
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Nonexistant file should throw a validation error!")
 	}
 
 	// Bad
diff --git a/common/config.go b/common/config.go
index cc7eced6a..490553388 100644
--- a/common/config.go
+++ b/common/config.go
@@ -109,14 +109,6 @@ func DownloadableURL(original string) (string, error) {
 	// Make sure it is lowercased
 	url.Scheme = strings.ToLower(url.Scheme)
 
-	// This is to work around issue #5927. This can safely be removed once
-	// we distribute with a version of Go that fixes that bug.
-	//
-	// See: https://code.google.com/p/go/issues/detail?id=5927
-	if url.Path != "" && url.Path[0] != '/' {
-		url.Path = "/" + url.Path
-	}
-
 	// Verify that the scheme is something we support in our common downloader.
 	supported := []string{"file", "http", "https"}
 	found := false