At first, the 1100s were leased from SLPS because the City charter forbid the Muni from buying used equipment, a result of public reaction to all the worn out equipment acquired from the MSRy when the City took it over. It wasn't until the mid to late 1960s until the cars were purchased outright. Because of the politics of City purchasing, all the Mack busses were leased for a long time.

As they rotted out, the blinker doors were replaced with wood butterfly doors. Since this required some changes to the door engines and mechanisms, toward the end of the PCC era the carpenter shop started making wood blinker doors. At one time they were going to make cast aluminum blinker doors (I've seen the pattern) but never did. The original D-type doors were inward-opening "butterfly" type, but these have just about all been changed to outward opening (that Chicago PCC fire).