Sharing this so others can have a shorter learning curve when bumping into this...

When there is a bounding box and colored faces in a part template, the colored faces do not retain their color even after it's saved as a part file.  So if you need colored faces and a bounding box do not put both into a template, only apply colors to the faces after it's made into a sldprt file.  It seems there is no way to back out of it either - once there are both bounding box and colored face saved as a template, it appears to be forever poisoned.

SPR 1082423 has been issued for this, please vote for it!   (thank you)