Yeah, right- good luck on all of your theories and suppositions!

But I'm sure there are people lining up to contribute to his "cause"!

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.

So they found maybe a piece of an airplane, in an area near an airfield that saw extensive aerial combat in WWII. Every time Tighar finds aluminum, the skeptics say it is from a WWII airplane that crashed 150 miles away.

From Wikipedia: Today the airport is the primary air portal into Bougainville, and even 75 years after the war, wreckage from the military use of the airfield by the Japanese and Americans is easily found in the area.

How did the colonists or other islanders prepare shellfish? I'd heard they open them while still in the surf, then leave the shells.

If she made it several months, was she eating 100% protein (birds, fish, clams)? Maybe that killed her? I've heard of castaways that ate the entire fish being very healthy after long periods, whereas others who just ate the meat were sick.

The artifacts that were found at the 7 site tell me that she had the clothes on her back, a jack knife and a small cosmetic bag. It seems like she lost the airplane early and unexpectedly, with most of the gear still on board.

There's what could have been done, and then there's what evidence shows was done.
No evidence has been found that I recall of clam shells or coconut shells being placed in the fire.
Heating water in a paper cup or coconut shell may be well known now, but was it known in 1937?
To do it, you have to know how to do it, and you need to have or make a suitable container.
If you don't have a container, you have to know how to make one and have the means to make one.
There was discussion of this on previous threads.

There was not much available in the way of survival training in the 1930s. The military got involved in it by way of WWII.
The main source of any such training (limited as it might have been) was the Scouting programs. I don't know what might have been taught in the Girl Scouts, but the Boy Scouts offered a fair amount of useful training (based on what my grandfather, a Boy Scout c.1910, and my father, a Boy Scout c.1939, have told me). But I also haven't seen any record that Earhart or Noonan had been Scouts. Nor that they had sought out any such training in preparation for the flight. Amelia was not big on thorough preparation -- even obvious things like learning Morse Code, or making sure the radios worked, and how to operate them. She wasn't even terribly careful about preflighting her airplane. It just wasn't in her nature to take the time to have survival training she had no intention of needing.

It's a reasonable question whether even an islander, stranded with no outside help and only the tools that have been found, could have survived for very long.

Christian has put it very well -- they were just not prepared for this. It's remarkable that at least one appears to have survived for more than a few days.

LTM,
Don

Apparently the Electra was completely covered in coral, resembling a Flintstones aircraft. 

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/glass-lens-may-shine-light-on-the-mystery-of-amelia-earhart/article_9ddd7999-2c99-55de-a3c5-4acc82999512.html

Interesting find.  Thanks.  There are no apparent wrinkles in the patch when she leaves Miami on June 1 (first photo below) but we can see reflections in the shiny new patch.
The Caripito photo, taken two days later on June 3, (second and third photos below) shows what looks like a big wrinkle across the middle of the patch.
The next time we have a clear photo of the patch is in Java on or about June 24 (fourth photo below). There's possibly a slight bulge in roughly the same location but that might be a reflection.

These possible wrinkles or bulges are different in location and appearance than the deformation we see in Darwin and Lae.  I suspect what we see in the Carapito and Java photos are reflections. 

Interesting.  Wonder if the negatives are still around somewhere.

This article says that a family has come forward with photos of Earhart’s stop in Caripito Venezuela.  They were originally taken by a Standard Oil Executive, most look familiar but the 4th photo in the article shows the patch with a very visible crease.  I did a quick search and did not find it on the Tighar site or elsewhere.  If this photo is known then just move on.

https://www.leadvilleherald.com/free_content/article_9640e886-8cb3-11eb-8d9e-f7049b8b8bbe.html

Okay maybe my depth perception is a tad off but would you agree that something is there?

Yes.  It's about 15 feet across.  I think it's a bush.