Citabria painted stars

I'm bringing this up on an older thread because it seems to fit.

I've recently acquired a 1995 Decathlon, and when fueling it, i noticed that there is clear plastic that seems to be peeling off of the trim around the edge of the stars. Is this something that anyone has see before? (picture attached) I don't know anything about how fabric airplanes are painted, but it looks like the white borders around the stars may be some sort of applied tape. Is the clear peeling plastic a surface layer of the trim tape that is failing and delaminating? Or is it some sort of protective film that is supposed to be stripped after they apply the tape, and they forgot to strip it?
 

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It looks like there is a clear layer that is coming off, maybe from being exposed to fuel that has spilled out of the filler neck? Is it happening everywhere or only around the filler neck?

Is that the original fabric and paint?
 
I recall the logbooks showing that the fuel tanks were replaced, so I imagine that they had to redo the fabric to accomplish that, right? I don't think it's due to fuel, because the delamination is happening in areas that are far enough from the fuel filler that you'd have to be REALLY messy to get fuel there. I don't recall if it's happened places other than the wings; i'll go look again net time I'm at the hangar. This had me thinking though, i bet that the stars on the "new" fabric is done differently than elsewhere on the bird. I don't yet know much about fabric... is using tape (the white lines) a typical thing on aircraft paint, to get the lines neat?
 
yes, tape is commonly used. maybe there are different brands of vinyl tape and the one used there has the clear top layer? Maybe as UV protection?
 
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