Short-term outdoor exposure of southern pine, Douglas-fir, yellow-poplar, Engelmann spruce, and western red cedar prior to finishing affected adhesion of primers. Freshly planed and unpainted panels were exposed outdoors, oriented vertically facing south, for 4 or 8 weeks during the summer near Madison, Wis. The panels were then painted with an alkyd or acrylic latex primer and tested in shear to determine paint adhesion. Results were compared to data from panels not exposed before painting. The change in shear strength was dependent on type of primer, exposure time before painting, and wood species. Panels painted with acrylic latex primer failed primarily at the wood-paint interface, and shear strength decreased with time of exposure. Although panels painted with alkyd primer had no general failure trend for the specimens exposed for 0 or 4 weeks, specimens exposed for 8 weeks before painting failed primarily at the wood-paint interface. The adhesive strength decreased with exposure time for the two lower density species, but increased for the three higher density species. The results from the low density species agrees with previous results using western redcedar. The results from the high density species were unexpected and additional studies are planned.