Transmission / Driveshaft Paint

I'm not a toploader expert, but I do know they made iron and aluminum ones. If its aluminum I would just clean it and leave it alone. If its iron then after its "white glove" clean, just some good old acrylic enamel will do fine, if you have access to a paint gun, it will by far the the most durable paint job you can give it. Rattle cans are too thin, not to say you can't get a good result with them if you have patience. As far as rattle cans go, you get what you pay for, get a nice medium gloss krylon or some other name brand paint. Just tape up the input shaft and you should be fine. You can do the driveshaft the same way. Clean clean clean! Pressure wash it, then hit it with a wire brush and some degreaser, then follow up with a toothbrush and some paint thinner.

If it wasn't powder coated i would look into "POR-15" Engine kit. It works well on both iron & steel. Once dropped a aluminum valve cover i painted 24 hours prior on the garage floor and no chips or cracks.

For cast iron use the Dupilcolor high temp cast iron paint. For the driveshaft use Rustoleum Professional Stainless Steel. Note that this paint has flakes in it which may come out and make the piece fuzzy. Stop painting, let it dry and wipe them off with tack cloth. Then resume painting after shaking the can a lot.

The Stainless Steel is the closest to bare metal I have found.

Ideally, your driveshaft should look like this. Do what you can to get there: