Just one thing, is it only the later gulls that have to be painted?
Up until the early fifties the only things painted were the cylinder block, fuel tank and brass teiller arms. Villiers carbs were painted with a sort of stove enamel/hammered finish.
Then they started to paint the gearbox/water pump housing/prop assembly that silover grey colour. Then Siulver Century cylinders became actually silver coloured. Next was a very brief period with Hammered Silver flywheels, followed by the gold. That went on for ages until the late seventies when the black tanks became blue.
The 170/125 had blue gearboxes with white hood trays and accessories, QB series were predominantly black, and after that there's a bit of a free for all, with silver and black and gold motors.
The only painted legs were those at the very end which were powder coated black. Crankcases were, I suspect, always bare aluminium.
