Hi Adrian,
Most if not all of my WWII civilian bikes were early to mid 1942 production when rubber was still the main type of pedal blocks used. Of course there would have been a transition period as you got into mid to late 1942 when you may find rubber and/or wooden blocks and then just wood into 1943 and much of 1944 for the most part. As you are aware the military models also followed a similar time frame in regards to rubber and wooden pedal use. As far as whether the military bike wooden pedal blocks were painted from the factory originally, I cannot say for certain. I have seen non-painted wooden blocks that were supposedly original and I have seen painted wooden blocks. I suspect that most of the wooden blocks came from the factory unpainted however, since these bikes were produced by two different companies ( Westfield and Huffman ) over approximately a three year period it would be possible, in my estimation, that some of these were painted prior to shipment to the military. It was over a long period during a very volatile time to say for certain that all wooden military bike pedal blocks were originally painted or not. The only all black bike pedals with black painted wood blocks that I remember seeing, and I have a pair, are the Torrington 18 pedals. If memory serves me right they came in two versions black without pedal blocks ( rat trap ) and with the wood blocks. If the model number is missing on these pedals, like so many are, they can easily be mistaken for Torrington 8's. The set that I have have the standard gothic pointed style front and rear endplates. I hope this helps.
Regards,
Bill
