Hello, Just thought I would warn you guys with refurbished alloy wheels. I had my Mazda alloys refurbished in June 2012, I have only hand washed the car since then myself. Thought I would tryout the local Hand Car Wash place, they washed the car very well but it seems their pressure washer has stripped of the paint on one of my alloys.
Pic here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pjfgj5blulfed1h/2014-09-02%2012.50.39.jpg?dl=0
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Hi, it looks like the painter just sprayed over the original finish and that new top coat would have come off at some stage anyway. The original paint underneath looks to be still shiny and may even have had wax on it. It should have been degreased and abraded with papers or scotchbrite at least.
Hello Rich, The alloy was properly powder coated by a big firm here in Kent. Where it has removed the paint the underneath is a white almost like white plastic finish.
They don’t guarantee alloys for durability, but two years seems a bit rubbish too me.
Our local hand wash (along with most I suspect) spray hydrochloric acid on the wheels. Ask them not to do this!
Hi again Golders,
If it’s white under there then it may be powder coat primer rather than the old paint but I would still lay the blame with the painters rather than the jet wash. I’ve acid cleaned (and not) and jet washed hundreds of times on lots of different cars and never had a problem. I think that is poor prep or deteriorated paint and would definitely take it back to them
Hi Rich, I am going to take it to a different refurbishers to see what they think has gone wrong. The layer of paint seems very thin to me and I don’t think there is much lacquer on them.
The guys who did this charge £72 a wheel, so I won’t be going back to them. Based in Gillingham, Kent. (L******)
Will see what the other refurbishers reckon.
(They only charge £50 a wheel) based in Rochester, Kent.
Rob 
Your choice of course but I’d take it to the original people if you had all 4 done and have a receipt as you could find the others start flaking soon.
