I have helped with several wooden streetcar paint jobs, indeed I'm working on one now. It is important to preserve history and this is accomplished by painting over what's there, but often the paint is in too poor a condition or the underlying wood needs too much repair. No matter what is done, documentation is critical. I have never seen a situation where there was too much documentation - too many tracings of lettering and numbers, too many photographs, too many paint chips preserved.

Thank you very much for the input. We have just completed tracing the lettering and decorative work on the car, and have measured and located where the lettering occurs, I.e. center points of the font, and suitable benchmarks for locations . Our museum curatorial staff only recommends oil based primers and paints. I assisted in the car’s last painting over 20 years ago, and we used Benjamin Moore Impervo. I am going to consult with shop forces in Branford,ct, and possibly the Mystic Maritime group, as both are only an hour away. I do agree that vinyl just doesn’t cut it do to the aforementioned issues. I hope to have some pics to post soon. Keep the ideas coming.