My beam axle is painted satin black, like my ch***is. My WAC axle under my J is Rally Wheel argent silver. Both of them usually have a coating of bugs on the front. Gary
I don't like chrome axles for several reasons. So after grinding off the forging flash and smoothing over the surfaces I painted my champ car gloss grey enamel, similar to Marty, but I then hand painted the insides of the lightening holes accent black.
Used to have big truck grilles, wheels, and front bumpers painted Argent Silver so when a friend was looking for ideas, I suggested he paint all the suspension front and rear Argent. Looked good with the green ch***is & body and no impression that it was pretending to be chrome.
Painted with chrome bits and pieces on my old HotrodA roadster. Imron held up great for many years and made for easy cleanup.