pic: FRC488 - Fall Project, Rev. A

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Chadfrom308

You are right, maybe it should be just a middle piece cut out. The reason being that this metal underbody is just added weight that can and should be removed

Not really. You need something there, unless you like frames being non-rectangular parallelograms or other interesting shapes. We're talking 0.090 sheet metal here, with a weight reduction pattern--can't get much thinner and lighter than that without needing some extra support. If that bellypan is more than 2 lb, I'd be shocked; I wouldn't be surprised if it was closer to 1 lb or under. Removing more weight won't exactly help in this situation.