The pilot car 3614 is actually older than the car in the photo, back through the 1990s-mid 2000s the MBTA did do in-house repainting of the 3600-series Type 7s and with a few exceptions, they went in numerical order from lowest numbered (oldest) to highest. The repainted cars were done in the teal paint scheme. The 20 1997-built 3700s were delivered in the teal paint. The problem with the paint job on the 3600s isn't just age/wear, the body filler began drying out at an early date and the paint started coming off in chunks. The cars that were repainted by the MBTA had to be sandblasted to remove all of the original paint and body filler. The repainting process required windows, doors, trucks, and roof-mounted equipment to be removed before the carbody could be sandblasted. That's one reason why the MBTA never finished repainting the cars in-house, as it took a long time per car and was expensive. As part of the present overhaul, all cars, whether low-numbered cars repainted in teal or high-numbered cars in the original paint, will be sandblasted and repainted. The paint job on the later 3700s has not had the same issues as the 3600s, although those cars will also be repainted if they pick-up the option to overhaul the surviving 3700s.
