I'm covering a small racing plane (Cassutt) and the forward termination point for the fabric is a 5/16 tube that travels about 180 deg of the lower fuselage. Is this sufficient to support the fabric up to 240 mph or so? The reason I ask is that there is a sheet of soft aluminum that has its edges bent to curl around this tube and it forms a lower panel of sorts that would increase the gluing area but is not well fastened to the structure. This is a restoration but I just don't like the way this piece fits and would prefer to leave it off, but will this cause problems down the line? It seems to me that the fabric would be more secure to go straight to the structure versus to this panel that is only bent into place obscuring any substantial structure that the fabric can be glued to. It is about 5 feet from the propeller and 2.5 feet from the cowl flap exit and is behind an aluminum panel forming the lower cowl. Thanks for your help.
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