Keith et all,
Thanks for all of your comments and insight. Reading all of your stories is really interesting.
Here is a picture of my engine compartment before I rebuilt the 327 several years ago.
As I said previously, I can't say how my alternator bracket got to be orange. I checked all the date codes on my 327 and am convinced that all the major components are original and from around the same few weeks in the spring of 1968. The paint on the bracket was very hard and seemed original to me when I stripped it. (Not rattle-canned) There was no evidence of black paint underneath it.
I am pretty sure that I bought my truck from the original owner and there was no apparent repainting in the engine compartment.
As a child of the 60's and 70's, I do remember a day when used car dealers would re-paint engine blocks to make them appear extra clean and more saleable. This might explain why some engine components got to be the wrong color on some trucks.
I guess I envision some guy running to the engine paint line and handing the painter these previously back-ordered alternator brackets at the last minute with instructions to bolt them to the block and paint them with the block.
