'32 woody color

[ro]

I recall there being a lighter and a darker shade of paint on the station wagons. Can someone please tell me the correct name for mine? Thanks so much.

 

[DavidG]

Only one color used originally, namely winterleaf brown-light, although a few early '32 station wagon cowls, etc. may have been painted with leftover Model A tan colored paint.

 

[CHuDWah]

Only one color used originally, namely winterleaf brown-light, although a few early '32 station wagon cowls, etc. may have been painted with leftover Model A tan colored paint.

FWIW, the Model A color is Manila Brown. AFAIK, all A ('29 - '31) station wagons, special deliveries, and travelers wagons were that color.

 

[DavidG]

Here's winterleaf brown - light, as original.

 

[Deuce-Addict]

David - would any have been painted Emperor Brown originally? Keith

 

[petehoovie]

Here's winterleaf brown - light, as original.

David - would any have been painted Emperor Brown originally? Keith

 

[V8COOPMAN]

Here's winterleaf brown - light, as original.

DavidG…..As much as I hate to admit it, and for as many years now that I've been looking at your avatar picture, I honestly couldn't have told you WHAT color the cowl and hood were on that car, until seeing the car in this latest pic. I just never paid attention. And it's such a cool color, too! DD

 

[ro]

I will say, after the car dried from the power wash it did take on a more brownish tint than appears in the pic. The pic looks more like a Fall leaf than a Winter leaf. Maybe there was a "fallleaf-light" and they forgot to list it

 

[DavidG]

Keith,

Not likely on a '32 as I recall some archival reference to using up excess inventories of Winterleaf brown-light on early '33 station wagons before Emperor brown-medium was used.


DD,

I really like the color as well and have used it elsewhere in combination with Winterleaf brown-dark.

 

[petehoovie]

"I really like the color as well and have used it elsewhere in combination with Winterleaf brown-dark." DavidG

 

[MplsMike]

Here is a link to an auto paint library that summarizes colors available. Find the right era, input year and manufacturer and you will get a bunch of info.

https://www.autocolorlibrary.com/

 

[woodiewagon46]

I wonder if the fact that Baker-Rulang and not Ford, built the bodies, might have something to do with it? According to the Book Famous Ford Woodies, by Lorin Sorenson the early 1932 Ford wagons were in fact painted with 1931 Model A, Manila Brown. It make no distincton as to when the Winter Leaf Brown was used, it only states "mid year".

 

[DavidG]

With respect, despite what Lorin Sorenson wrote, it is not clear from the information in Ford's archives that all of the '32 station wagon bodies were built by Baker-Rauling as only a fraction of the survivors with original right front door wood have their name plate or holes in the wood where the name plate was once attached. My wagon's body number is under 100 and it clearly did not ever have one of their name plates attached to the right front door (all of the wood in the door was original before the restoration). Further, the original engineering drawings for the roof side sills show two different means of construction were approved, strongly suggesting more than a single source for the bodies.

Mid-year can mean a number of things given that '32 model Job #1 was in early March, 1932 and no station wagon bodies were shipped to the assembly plants until April 22. Only twenty bodies were installed on chassis by that month's end. May was a high water mark for station wagon production with 505 Bs and 1 V8 out the door by the end of the month, which ended up being more than one-third of the total number produced (1,406). Given the body number of my wagon, it likely was one of those B models produced in May and it was originally painted in Winterleaf (Ford's spelling) brown-light. I've seen a fair number of survivor '32 wagons in the 58 years that I've owned mine and of those with surviving original paint all were Winterleaf brown-light, but I've no doubt one will turn up in Manila brown as I indicated in #2 above. As shown in the photos above, the two colors are not easily confused.

 

[woodiewagon46]

David, do you think that perhaps the early bodies were built by Murray, until they turned over production of the '32 Station Wagon body to Baker-Rulang?

 

[ro]

I found some nice original paint on the rear door hinge. Doesn't it seem lighter than winterleaf? Leftover '31 maybe?