Jim,
I have wondered about this for a long time, and I have concluded that the magnetos and distributors were bolted on after the painting was done. Hence, they were the color provided by the manufacturer. These conclusions come from looking at various old, original tractor pictures, including the Iconografix series of books for the A, B, and D, as well as original magneto manufacturer's sales brochures, both pictures and info contained therein, as well as JD Field Service Bulletins and other service information. For example, I believe the Wico XB distributor (that looks like a magneto) was originally painted a black crinkle finish, then changed to a grey color later when they were updated (info from a Wico bulletin). Best as I can tell the Wico C had black bodies, and the Wico XH were natural aluminum color. The Fairbanks Morse DRV2A,B bodies were also natural color, and the Wico AP series had black bodies. All Wico covers were black, and the early Fairbanks high voltage towers were reddish in color.I have about convinced myself that the bodies were not painted green, since the identification tags have a manufacturer's color (usually red for Wico) and I have seen many of these clean red tags - I don't know why any one would work to remove the green paint from the tag - it is not easy to get it all off, and surely JD would not have bothered to tape off the tag. I also suspect that it was not unusual for the magneto's to be painted after repair, hence the green magneto's on old tractors.
My 0.02 worth.
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