Jerry, good catch.
Yes, the belly got me re-captivated for a while, as well, as a possibiilty, but seemed finally to be too far a reach: belly 'repairs' should follow the existing / original structural scheme, almost exactly.
'Modifications' can easily be an entirely different matter - and while I've never held 2-2-V-1 to be a shoo in (despite my enthusiasm - which draws both more enthusiasm and criticisms, of course), I do see it as a 'wild card' possibility given that the large lav window is NOT stock.
That said - I respect the arguments that say that stiffener patterns, etc. SHOULD come closer to the original airframe scheme. It is true that a window covering would ideally follow the original construction scheme. I merely hold that under the circumstances of patching over that window, lots of other things were quote possible, and 2-2-V-1 is too fortunitous a find to pass up for consideration. I had no idea there was anywhere on the Electra where a panel of that size would fit, logically - except maybe a belly 'repair' - until the window was realized.
My main focus since the beginning of this 'does it perhaps belong to the window covering' quest has been 'gee I'd love to just see a great picture of that finished covering' - a truly clear picture would be worth many thousands of words here.
We may be at the cusp of that. What it will tell us I cannot know yet. I know what the pictures show so far, and a lav window covering fit is far more likely than the belly, which I think we rightly abandoned - but only time and more information will truly tell.
Thanks for sharing this cool photo of the belly - correction, my bad - LAV WINDOW - area framing on an Electra - it is interesting. Perhaps it can be seen why this - the belly - was such a fascinating area for a time, especially knowing of the Luke Field incident damage, etc. From this shot, we can easily understand the ideal notion of 'just put the skin back like it was' in covering the window, but we must also consider that the added window changed a lot here, and having to cover it with apparently limited resources and time may have become something akin to the 'mother of invention'.
Updated for clarity and to correct my reference to the 'belly' as we're actually seeing a side area of the fuselage in the STA 293 5/8 to 320 or so on an in-work factory Electra build.