Bed wood painting

[TLea]

Working on 66 long bed stepside. When factory painted bed wood black was it done with wood installed or before? Basically want to know if paint would be seen on bottom
thanks

[oem4me]

Planks were black on bottom as well. On Chevrolets, beds were assembled and black planks were masked ahead of body color. Included is a shot from under an unrestored, low mile original 1966 fleetside truck.

[TLea]

Wow thats interesting. So painted wood installed in assembled bed (Assume bed was in primer?) then masked the wood off top only? Beds sprayed body color so there might be body color overspray on bottom planks?

[oem4me]

On the very best preserved examples, some stray staples remain in the wood around the perimeter of the bed, their tops showing body color. Even rarer, traces of masking paper remain pinched between the sheet metal and bedwood.

[Pick121]

Good question. if you want to be as close to factory/OEM is one approach but to help the wood last as long as possible make sure to protect “all 6 sides”: top, bottom, both sides, both ends before installing regardless of what can be seen/what is covered up by bed parts, bed strips, fenders, etc.