I"m curious about the arm on the forward swing table.

It's painted brown.

Did VW start painting the arms after a certain year? Is it possible
someone repainted it to spruce up the look?

With a can of Rustoleum Leather Brown paint and about 30 minutes time, my front table leg (and leg bracket) are also brown. I just thought it looked better than the silver-and matched the rest of the interior.   Jeff