I decided to try and spruce up my throttle cable and kickdown linkage yesterday. Both pieces were looking pretty tired. Almost all of the protective plating wore away over the last 40+ years.
I did a spray out of various aluminum, metallic and chrome paints that I have in my cabinet. I felt that the Rustoleum chrome paint had the closest resemblence to the original clear zinc finish. I don't know how durable it will be but it looks better than it did before.