Front fender brace paint color

While I have my front wheel off for new tire mount - I belive I have the original paint on the braces that go from the fender to the lower fork. It looks like a military gray color - is this factory correct?

Dunno what the name of it is, but yes grey. Had mine chromed a while ago and never looked back.

Yea - my basic instinct is it's pretty ugly although original. I would like to paint them gloss black or something. Which brings me to another question - I have mostly classic cars ( GTO's) which like Corvettes, are generally much more valuable kept original. But basically I love to play with things and do it the way I want which I did with some of the cars. Is there a collector value for maintaining original "patina" on Nortons or is it not worth it? Thanks again for all your help. Tried opening an account with photobucket to post pictures, had problems, try again in the AM to post some pictures.

Hi- IMHO, I guess there is some value in keeping things absolutely original. But from what I have seen of bikes for sale (eBay, craigslist, shows, etc) unless your bike is a museum piece, it doesn't seem all that critical. The kind of bike that such a minor change would affect the price is not the kind of bike that most of us own, let alone ride on the weekends.
I changed mine to a nice chrome-ish paint, they came out looking great, and if I ever get a wild hair to do a museum restoration I can always change them back. I hated the grey, so I changed it. Just my $.02. Good luck!

If you get a bike that is real stock it is probably better to keep it that way.
After all it is now about 40 years old, why spoil it? Things like paint
and things easily removeable dont matter so much. If you want to
build a custom, then go look for a tired old wreck and have at it.
My bike is very unmessed with but Ive painted the stays , the chain guard,
the 3x clamps black. Easy to replace with NOS stuff and they were
knackered so I felt guilt free.