['ol Pinion head]

Most 9778808 wp pulleys I've pulled originally had a silver cad finish. These were installed on '66 models. The cad plating fades out with time to gray, the finish can even look like a very washed out (faded) black painted pulley. By examining where the fan spacer bolted up, one can see a circle that is still silver cad finish.

The pulley in question... "819" wp pulleys. Every original I've pulled was black painted. Have easily had three-four dozen "819"s, still have several nice used in the pallet section, never had any hint of a gold gad type finish.
In cleaning out dealership stocks, have had a bunch of NOS "819" wp pulleys that were silver cad plated. Have an NOS "819" currently in the pulley stacks which still has a wired on manilla tag from GM Parts Distribution. To install it on anything close to a Concours restored car, I would glass bead & refinish @ 90% gloss black.

Other silver cad factory finish WP pulleys:
In the late 90's hauled in a '63 Tripower GP. It's original wp pulley was silver cad finish. Original timing cover, PS, & pulleys. Have ran across this same part number wp pulley when boneyarding, often pulling it & setting it aside when pulling original water pump cores.

For '67 & '68 models, factory V8 AC cars typ received the "886" WP pulley. Have had several NOS, & ALL were a gloss black. Eventually that gloss black dulls. Have pulled & sold dozens of "886" wp pulleys, as well as matching crank pulleys, all were black, no hint of silver cad underneath the black.

In manual strg stock, have a complete '68 V8 manual steering pulley bracket & pulley set, bought in another dealership parts buyout. Both pulleys look NOS except for slight imprint where the fan spacer was bolted on. At the time of the buyout, I thought the manual strg set interesting. The prev dealership principal then relayed to me, that occasionally, he would get a brand new manual steering late '60's A-body in a dealership trade. On a few occasions, he had one of his mechanics swap on factory PS in order to make a sale. Those '68 manual pulleys are gloss black. Have numerous NOS '70, 70 F-body, & '71 up WP & crank pulleys & all are a gloss black, just like the area under the reinforcement ring on '68+ crank pulleys.