My car was recently cleaned (not at my request) by someone who used cheap acid to clean my style 166 M5 rims. Ironically, I clean the wheels 2-3 times weekly with P21S and the wheels themselves have less than 2000 miles of use. In other words, they are so absent of any dirt/road grime/brake dust deposits that you could literaly wash them with soap and water and get a perfect result. I suspect what happened is that the acid was shot onto my wheels while they had 2 days worth of dirt on them(because thats the lazy no-touch approach). I think the acid then partially melted the clearcoat, and the existing dirt was mixed into the clearcoat and subsequently set in permanently. The result is rims that have dark brown drip stains (like hard water stains on a car's hood) even after they are scrubbed rigorously with a brush and P21S. Essentially, I think the clearcoat was contaminated.

How do I fix this? Get the rims professionally compounded/buffed? Are there special wheel cleaners? Do any detailers specialize in this type of work?

I am an attorney. I am not going to take this lying down. The responsible party (who will remain annonymous for now) is going to be getting sued if I can't fix this problem and they refuse to accept responsibility. Also, who do I get to confirm how this damage occurred? Who should I have look at the car for an opinion? Are there detailers that will diagnose this with some expertise? Maybe a metallurgist?

Thanks for any help,
DRP

 

try using an orbital buffer/polisher and apply a small amount of polish like Zaino z5 or meguiars polish. The same stuff used for scratches and swirl marks.