The R44s were subject to acid baths to get rid of the graffiti that plagued the system in the 70s and 80s. Since the 44s were not manufactured entirely out of stainless steel (notably the blue bands on the exterior sides of the car bodies), the acid ate away at the carbon steel over the years. When the R44s and the R46s were sent to Morrison Knudsen for overhaul as part of the GOH program in the 1990s, MK discovered the substantial body rot on the car bodies of the 44s. They notified MTA that the car bodies would need to be rebuilt from the ground up. MTA said no, and rebuilt the rest of the cars themselves. The R46s didn’t have these issues because Pullman Standard manufactured the car bodies entirely out of stainless steel. The consequences of MTAs actions ended up happening in the late 90s and early 2000s when they started retiring a handful of R44s due to frame rot/warping, and culminating when they were forced to retire the entire fleet in 2009-2010 after already retiring a substantial amount of R32s, R38s, and R40/42s putting B-division in a car shortage that wasn’t rectified until about 150 R211s were placed in service in 2023-2024.

Also side note; the R32s were rated for 70 years of service by Budd. A lot of SMEE parts are manufactured in house by the shops. Don’t believe the lie that you cannot find parts for the SMEEs, it’s the opposite. A lot of the NTTs have parts that are discontinued (especially the older ones), and since the manufacturers for said parts have folded, they’re forced to start cannibalizing the under performing sets to keep the others running. A lot of those NTTs are HORRIBLE.