Just glancing at other mirror-finished, taildragger airplanes, like the DC-3, I think that the horizon is being reflected on the patch. It depends on the angle from which the photo was taken. Also, I either see a person, or the Miami base ops building in the first image.
Speaking of DC-3s, and as a former aircraft mechanic, it's not a stretch to imagine that the Miami repair was made with scrap aluminum from a Pan Am DC-3. They would have had bins of scrap aluminum laying around. It would have been a faster repair than using new sheet metal.