Most factory springs were shipped bare and ready to rust. Many think they were painted Black, but the majority weren't, some just looked blackish from the forging process. Some looked grayish. My Bee we painted them "twinkle dinkle" silver
but like painting black once it starts to chip it'll look like crap, why I just soaked these in Boeshield T9. Very easy to give them a mist from time to time to keep them from rusting too fast.
Note that other than some black paint that was obviously sprayed in the last decade onto these, there was absolutely ZERO sign that these springs had been painted prior to the assembly line installation.