I have no idea if merely brushing it on will work, I have mine in a large container. It shouldn't be hard to find a container especially if you have a lot of parts that you'll end up doing. If you're real careful and don't poke a hole I imagine you could put your parts into a thick plastic garbage bag - but I'd be afraid of leaks.
As for after, I'll probably go over them with a fine steel wool or SOS pad and see what's really there. A lot of the brown stains on the chrome are leaching out from very tiny pits but the chrome is still there. Where it is actually missing, I'll let you know after the whole wheel is done. Clear coat may be the way to go but in reality I doubt that these will ever look new again. These 14 inch wheels are really quite useless to me, this is only an experiment.
Meanwhile, I just disassembled my heater and ducts, so all the slightly rusty flappers and brackets are getting a soaking right now. Once that's all cleaned up and lubed (along with the control cables) the operation of the vent sliders should be a lot freer.