Dman those rims are unfortunately F*cked!! the chemicals they used ate throught the thin clear coat on the rims and etched the paint! take it back to them, but only way to fix that is to have them repainted or replaced! Lesson learned=Never go to a drive through car wash!!

 

That is messed up!

Maybe try some Meguiars Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner? It uses a "chemical" scrubber rather than abrasives to get scratches out of paint so maybe it will work for stained powder coat? Then move onto mild abrasive like Scratch-X. Just try a small spot to see if it even makes a difference.

http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/produc...p?T1=MEG+A3016

 

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO AND SAY EXACTLY - Go back to the place that did your car, you ask for the manager. I'm sure you have a picture of your car somewhere that shows the rims in their previous condition(at least i would hope) You bring the picture with you and you say " LOOK AT THIS PICTURE, now you dont see any markings all over my wheels here, and show him the "before" and then show him the after" and on the after picture by the way, its obvious that they used a spray of some sort that they shouldnt have becasue you can see all the overspray on the rotor in the first picture and its eating away at the rotor too. So you continue to say" I know you used something you shouldnt have becuase its all over my rotor and the evidence is obvious that it was caused by something you sprayed, THE BOTTOM LINE IS, WHEN I BROUGHT MY CAR TO YOU IT WAS IN PERFECT CONDITION, NOW, BECAUSE OF YOU IT ISNT, and i will be out thousands of dollars replacing my wheeld" tell him" you have two options, we can settle this now and you pay for new rims, or whatever has to be done to get them back to the original condition, or you can hear from a lawyer or a claims person from my insurance who will make your company pay for the damages, your choice" and just leave it at that, dont say anything else, and he'll **** his pants and be forced to replace it. I know this sounds realy harsh, but some lady hit my rear wheel on my car and scratched my entire bumber, i had to get the hub replaced and the entire bumper. She tried to F me around and not pay, i told her that exact same thing in the exact same words. Two seconds later i had her paying for all the damages. If you;'re a good person like me, you hate to do that to someone, but its life, and you didnt do it yourself so its not fair for you to suffer for someones else screw up.

 

ya good f'n luck tryin that around here. As soon as you take possession of the car and leave, its not anyones responsibility but your own.

Glad it worked for you, but if I was the shop, you woulda been hitting the bricks.

 

Well then i guess you just have to figure something else out then. I dont get how they can do that to you though and now theres no way of getting it fixed for free. When you brought the car there, the rims were fine. You get it back, its f'd. How's that fair.

 

it's not fair, but thats how it works.

its all part of the "as soon as you leave, its not under our control" policy that every shop has.

now had something been said before you left, then ya, you'd have a good chance of winning..

 

This is caused by acidic wheel cleaners than contain ammonia bifluoride (ABF), when mixed with water, it reacts and forms hydrochloric acid = death knell for anodized, and finished wheels.

The cleaning power is damn good, and it's easy, but since most "auto carwashes" never agitate and properly remove dust/etc from wheels: they need something that will just soak on and spray off. But most of the time, it will damage the wheels.

I am not sure about G wheels, but if they are anything like OEM Lotus Elise wheels, they are anodized, and unless you use ONLY Soap and water, non-acidic, or a PH balanced wheel cleaner like P21S Wheel Gel, they WILL etch.

You need new wheels or they need to be refinished or reanodized.