HardHitter

iTrader: (4)

January 2, 2006

Today I went to get a hand wash/detail at AJ's detail wash in San Jose, CA today after hearing so much good about them. I go there today and I get the Hand wash and express wax option.

The experience is pleasant just sitting and waiting for them to finish. I stand up and watch from a distance as they are finishing up my car. As I am watching I see one of the employees working hard on my wheels and bringing other employees other and pointing on something on my wheel. He then moves to the other side and does the same. I didn't really think about it much until they brought the car out.

The car looks great and they did a very good job until I hear the guy come to me and say "there seems to be stains on your wheels" I follow him over and he shows me my two front wheels that are totally stained and faded. He tells me he's going to try something else to try and see if they can get it out and I asked him what he used to clean the wheels and he says "we use the same bottle we use on your windows to clean them" and I reply "why would you use cleaner that you clean the windows on the wheels?"

I am starting to get mad as he tries to fix the stains and no solution. Most likely he probably thought my wheels were chrome which they are not and he used chrome cleaner on the wheels. He tells me to give him my information and the person who does wheels will call me tomorrow because he/she is not in right now.

I take down their information and I am expecting a call tomorrow. I bought my wheels from Rishie from AutoRnD and I tell him about my experience and he tells me that the wheels I have cannot be fixed without purchasing a new set of wheels because of the finish I have. They are not polished wheels and he said the car wash place thinks they are going to bring them to a wheel place to get them polished but he said it will mess up the wheels even more.

The worry I have right now is that the car wash place is NOT going to cover buying a new front set of wheels and I will be screwed over.

I am wondering if anyone has had any kind of problem like this and if so, what did you have to do? My wheels are AME Circular Spec-R 18x9/18x10's with BBF finish. Pictures will come soon.

bryant

sorry to hear that.
they should replace them but have you told the car wash place what the rim guy said about if they recoat it will mess them up more??
you should have the rim guy to call or come by with you.

at least he did take the blame so if you had to you could sue..


they should replace tho

HardHitter

iTrader: (4)

Here are the pictures

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

Try some Mother's aluminum polish - at this point, most anything won't do any more harm.

They might be clear anodized is my guess. Can you take some pics?

I've restored my Racing Beat wheels on my car and have some good experience with aluminum and finishes, I might be able to help out. Most anything that can be done can be un-done - that's one of the great things with aluminum.

Dale

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

Just saw the pics - TOTALLY use Mother's polish. I just got my car back from the body shop, and my polished intake tubes and rear wheel lips looked JUST like that. A little elbow grease, and they're good as new.

Mother's is in a small metal can, and you put a little on a rag, buff it in good, then use a terrycloth towel to buff it off. Takes a little elbow grease, but I bet you anything they can be bling-bling like new in no time.

Dale

adam c

iTrader: (2)

When you take your car to the carwash, the people working on it are not geniuses. In California, most of the workers probably speak little to no english. When you leave you car in the care of uneducated people, they are not going to know what wheels require what special cleaner. What happened should not come as a surprise. If your wheels required special care, you should have told them in advance.

FWIW, I would never take my car to a carwash. Wash it yourself. I can't imagine anyone that really cares about their FD being so lazy.

HardHitter

iTrader: (4)

When you see 70-100k, Benz's and BMW's come through regularly, they are not just a random car wash place. The 30-45 minutes I was there waiting for them to finish my car, I saw plenty of 60-80k cars come in with nothing less than a SRT8 Charger.

I usually wash the car myself, the reason why I wanted to bring it to them was because of all the praise they got for their detailing jobs and I wanted to see how they did. Like I said, the car looks amazing, but they made a BIG mistake on the wheels.

Chadwick

iTrader: (12)

Looks like they used Mag cleaner, it will buff right out.

preludesh2000

iTrader: (1)

that sucks ...thats why i wash my own rides....
i use windex on most of my rims, after i wash my car....

some metal polish, will help out ...my mother's car did the same thing, after a car wash ....i think because the wheels were so damn hot...from a road trip...
good luck

brad

IRPerformance

iTrader: (41)

Thats why I always detail my own car or pay a trustworthy friend to do it if I don't have time. I've seen those idiots do all sorts of stupid crap. One instance that comes to mind is when I was waiting for my jeep to run through the car wash. A customer in front of me needed antifreeze so he went in and was sold a bottle of blue washer fluid/antifreeze. The employee cleaning inside his car saw this and sent him back in to get something else. This time we walks out with a bottle of green washer fluid/antifreeze. The employee poured it into his radiator as I tried not to laugh. If the owner was so stupid hge deserved it. Try the mothers polish. If it doesn't help you might just have to send the wheels to a wheel restoration place and have them polished up and re-clear coated. Take pics before and after Hand the car wash the bill.

sereneseven

Ouch! from the pics it lookes like they were polished alum. clearcoated.....The clearcoat is what is hazed which pretty much means your screwed. you can polish all you want but it won't clear up untill you have polished through the clear coat and at that point it still won't look right because the other parts are still coated plus you will have to re polish them all the time because they are no longer protected, the only way to really get them back to the way they used to be will be too strip the whole lip, polish and re-coat. I had the same thing happen to a set Fikse.

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

Mmmm, I'm not sure doing anything with them at this point would be wise. I'd leave them alone until something definite is decided by the business. If he tries to fix them and it doesn't work, or makes them worse yet......it just gives them an out.

bryant

ya dont touch it till you see if they will fix or replace.
thats why you took it to the pros right. cause they know better!!

still wouldnt take mine to a car wash cause they use those crappy towels that scratch the clear.

have to have one of those 35 dollar towels and wet it first!!

str8ryd

iTrader: (473)

I had the same thing happen to a set of my old Kinesis wheels. It never came out, and I tried almost everything. It's a good thing they were 3 piece rims though, since Kinesis will replace whatever part that needs fixing.

I also learned the hard way not to trust just anyone with the car, especially with aftermarket wheels. Be extremelly careful next time.

HardHitter

iTrader: (4)

Ok, well here is the deal most likely what is going to happen tomorrow. I am supposed to be getting a call from the "wheel person" named Lupe but I will most likely call when they are open because I want this fixed as soon as possible. My friends were saying that they've had this problem with their lips and they brought it to a place called Wheel Technique (http://www.wheeltechniques.com/Default.htm) and they said they fixed it right up. Another guy had his Volk SF-Racing wheels totally bent and messed up from a accident and they made it look better than the other 3 wheels, so I am guessing this is where they are going to say they are going to bring the wheel to get fixed, however when speaking to Rishie on the phone today, he told me that not even wheel techniques are going to be able to fix the wheel because it is a special chrome powder coat that only AME/Japan can do and that the only fix is to get a new pair of front wheels. He said if they bring it to wheel techniques, it will just get messed up even more.

So what do I do for tomorrow when I go in/talk to them. Should I tell them they need to buy me new front wheels? I know that if I tell them that, they are going to tell me that is not needed and that their "wheel people" can fix it.

Ugh...

JHew84

iTrader: (9)

Let them jump through hoops, let their "wheel people fix the rims" and when/if their wheel people screw up the finish even more, it just furthers your argument that they NEED to replace your rims. You can explain to them that it is a special powdercoat and that the likelyhood of them being able to fix it is slim to none, but they probably won't listen and will try to take the cheap way out anyway. Either way it's no skin off your back, if anything them taking it to this wheel repair place will solidify the fact they know they are in the wrong and will just make it easier for you to get the rims replaced.

wickedrx7

iTrader: (14)

They are not anodized, if they where, they wouldn't be bright. They might be clear coated but that should hold up to any window cleaner. Easy way to tell, pick a small spot and polish with some aluminum polish. If the rag turns black, they are not coated at all. If it is raw aluminum, you should be able to polish them out without much trouble. If they are coated, you need to remove the coating and either leave raw or have them recoated.

ARD T2

iTrader: (22)

OK well I thought the stains were on the FAce of the wheel. The lip is polished and then cleared either with a clear coat or with a "Anodize" of sorts, in japan they call it an alumite.

let's wait to hear what wheeltech says and take it from there.

Man that sucks major ballz.

HardHitter

iTrader: (4)

Yea, I will keep you guys up to post tomorrow.

I swear, these past two weeks have been horrible. First I have a fuel leak and it takes me 4 days to fix that by replacing a FPD, then right when I put everything back together, I go on a test run and bust a radiator hose, another day spent working on that, then after that is fixed, my 2ndary boost isn't boosting all the way and now two days later, this is what happens to my wheels.

Hopefully I'll have good news tomorrow about the wheels and we can work things out.

HardHitter

iTrader: (4)

Alright, so I called AJ's and talked to Pablo who was the one who noticed the stains on my wheels and as I said, he sent me to the people at Wheel Techniques. I went over there for them to check out the wheels and they said that they have to dismount/mount/balance the wheel, polish out the outter lip, prep and clean, clear whole rim. I talked to Tim at Wheel Techniques and he is going to take care of me.

He told me that it is an anodized polished aluminum and that he's going to have to get through the anodize and repolish the aluminum, but he cannot replicate the finish that the wheels have and it will just be the polished aluminum. I'm sort of worried about this as it won't look the same or look as good as the rears which are not getting worked on (they are fine)

AJ's auto detail are going to cover the bill, which I expected for them to do, but I just hope the work is good work.

I'm waiting for a call from Tim to setup an appointment to drop the car off.

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

Why are you going to do it if:
(a) It won't look as good as it did and
(b) won't match the other wheels?
Put another way, if they backed into your car and dented the fender, would you settle mediocre body work and paint that only came close to matching?
I'm not saying you have to be a jerk about it, but I'd be firm. You deserve to have the wheels in the same condition and value as when you arrived at their business. I wouldn't settle for less. A J's should repair them as original, or if that isn't possible (apparently it isn't) they should replace them.
They also should have business insurance to cover it, albeit probably a high deductible, but that's not your concern.

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

Wheel Techniques have already told you that the wheels are not restorable to their original condition so if you allow them to work on them you will have no recourse if you are not happy with the results because you will have implicitly agreed to this condition.

What you need to do is to get a statement in writing from Wheel Technqiues that the wheels cannot be restored to their original condition and use it to request payment for two new wheels.

HardHitter

iTrader: (4)

I think the past two guys are right. The guy who quoted me on the wheels completely told me that they were not able to give the same finish on the lip as they could as they can not replicate the finish of the anodize lip themselves. They told me it would be straight polished aluminum as they would have to take off the anodize in order to reach the aluminum in order to polish the stain out.

I don't know how I will go about telling them that I want their writing stating that it cannot be fixed to original appearance though. I also feel as though I am going to have a problem with AJ's in a way of having them purchase two new wheels because Albert from AJ's called me asking how much it would be to replace my wheels, and once I said the price, he immediately told me to just contact Tim with Wheel Techniques and have them bill him. He also stated to me on the phone that "I was told the wheels came in with the stains already on them, but no problem, we will take care of them"

I am starting to have a bad feeling about this

KINETIK_FD3S

just have all 4 wheels striped and re-polished at the expense of AJ's, anodize does not last that long anyways and you will have a brighter shine without the anodize finish.

ARD T2

iTrader: (22)

I'm waiting to get an official response from AME Japan on what they use for the lip. I want to be sure wheel tech is aware of what they are up against. No sense in jumping to conclusions.

Might just be a polish with clear coat. Problem is it's a welded wheel, so basically a one piece. It can't be separated.

WERD on they should do whatever they have to in order to make them perfect.

Rishie