As I recall there has been a lot of discussion in the past about the islanders as a source of damage to any wreckage they happened to find. To me, 2-2-V-1 is evidence they did not find everything and there might be more untouched items to find. If, as appears likely, it is the Miami patch, it is nearly complete, missing only what was torn off in removing it from the airplane. The damage to it is consistent with what happened while it was in place (buckling visible in photos) or in its apparently forceful removal, whether by natural forces or human activity. There has been some speculation that Amelia and Fred removed it, either to open an access (to get in in or out) or for additional ventilation in the hot sun after landing. I am inclined to think it was removed by natural forces as the plane broke up, and that the remaining post-removal damage is from wind and water moving it around and bending it further. It appears to have been pushed outward by a blunt impact from inside the aircraft. If people did it, they apparently did not have suitable cutting tools and simply bashed on it from inside, maybe by kicking. There seems to be no post-removal damage such as would be inflicted by islanders repurposing it. There is an anecdote by an island woman of having cooked fish on a sheet of aluminum with many holes, which sounds like this, but I think it isn't. Such use might show fire damage on one side and fish residue on the other, or signs of cleaning; as I recall 2-2-V-1 doesn't show either. What was once thought to be heat hardening at one end of it is now believed to be work hardening, perhaps from it being flexed back and forth until it broke off.
I am writing this from memory and attempting to find all the references -- by doing a search on "2-2-V-1," which are from many different threads over several years (I have been reading my way through all the old Forum posts preceding my membership in TIGHAR, and I am not sure now in which one I read what. Please forgive any misstatements of fact.
LTM,
Don