On any woodgrain wagon I've seen, the whole vehicle has been painted body color first, then the woodgrain applied. Otherwise, the factory would have to spend labor and materials to mask off the 'woodgrain' area, just to 'save' from applying paint there.
Well..... I can only speak of the 80's era GM woodys ( I can't remember my Colony). I saw this post, this AM and it did'nt jive with me. Both my 83 and 87 GM wagons are origonal paint and wood..with the exception of 3/4s of the passenger side of the 83 has had the wood replaced. Both GM's are factory painted medium brown around door handles and gas tank where the wood has been trimmed away.. Both cars have some blemishes in he wood here and there. The rear quartes of both cars is clearly painted brown under the whole erea that the wood covers (chips and scratches show this). The tail gates and front fenders are not painted brown under the wood, I can't tell under the doors...no chips/scrapes etc.
On those GM's where the door handles and gas door are, the pattern cut of the wood isn't real exact, so they have to 'spot' in some brown in those areas so you don't see (in your case) blue, or whatever the body color is. The brown areas sort of blend in with the woodgrain and from a distance make it look OK. Did I explain this well?
Yes you did explain it very well. But I'm saying where the wood is chipped and scraped here and there on various parts of the rear quarters ( on my GM's) very far away from these trimmed ereas it's broun paint under the wood.....Did I explain this OK? Should I snap some pics tommorow in the lite to better explain what I'm talking about? PS...this is why pics mean everything.....
KK...normally i bow to you.. but i have to go against this time... My 78 Ford Woodie....was primered (like a semi gloss) under the wood.. and another too...but i cant recall what....it'l come to me