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The smooth side SS SP pax cars were rebuilds conceived to eliminate the near-fatal corrosion of the cor-ten frames on the P-S fluted cars built for the Daylights, Sunbeam and general service/Californian. This malady plagued every owner of these P-S, ACF, etc fluted cars (including the ATSF Pleasure Domes, BTW), which were not all-SS like the Budd cars because the other guys didn't want to pay royalties to Budd on the shotweld patent. Shotwelding was the only method for building the visible parts of a SS car where the welds weren't unsightly. So they just hung the SS sides on a conventional cor-ten side truss frame that was load-bearing (much of the car's structural stresses were routed through this frame, to reduce center sill size). This mixed-material construction leaked like a sieve, allowing water and cleaning acids into the side wall and frame area, where the insulation soaked it up like a sponge and left it, resulting in unbelieveable body cancer on those cars. The SS sides that SP applied to these cars literally saved them from a very early trip to the scrap heap as most of these cars were far less than 15 years old when the problem was discovered, and the fix added probably 20+ years to their lifetimes. No, they weren't as pretty, but consider the alternative. Everybody else had the same problem, and many of the solutions were similar. Some were really piecemeal--that's why you see some RI and other SS cars where there are strips of fluting left at the letterboards but not beneath the windows. Some of them with bigger budgets took pride in the fixes and periodically ripped the old sides off, patched the frame, and put the sides back on. Some of them just let the cars fall apart. These cars are a real mess, even today. I recently had the opportunity to look at a Pleasure Dome that was partially denuded, and it was a wonder that the car had even been roadworthy. P-S finally built some all-SS cars, starting in 1954 for MKT and SLSF, but by then the market was essentially gone. These cars were not shotwelded, but employed conventional spot welding, which leaves big marks and is not as attractive. What's ironic is that SP did the sides on almost the entire fleet at a time when they were becoming significantly anti-passenger. Don Gibson--see other post on "Halloween" paint. Experimental paint job before "bloody nose" adopted.
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