When I bought my car, the previous owner was an older woman that obviously liked to ride curbs. The stock wheels have curb rash along the outer edges as though she pulled up too close to the drive-thru window too many times. Additionally, I noticed what looks like some kind of corrosive "rash" looking stuff near the center cap that looks like maybe the plating is corroding? It's hard to explain other than it looks like a pale, off white "skin disorder" of some kind. heh. Obviously it's not repairable, but is there any way to stop it from spreading until I can get some new wheels?
While there are many, many benefits to performance wheels; I still kind of consider them a cosmetic upgrade as well and have not gotten to that stage with my car (I want to get the rest up to my liking before I make it "prettier")
What is this stuff and can it be stopped or at least slowed?

 

Looks like i have her sisters car! Every wheel on mine, hell, every TT i looked at had some curb marks on them. I couldnt take looking at mine anymore, so i took some paint striper to them and let them sit for awhile and then power sanded them with some 80grit sandpaper. I removed all the paint from the wheel (primer and tiny rust spots included) and then moved to finer grit sand paper until the sanding marks went away. After that i put on some krylon black paint (whatever color you want) and havent had any problems and thats through plenty of salt and snow. I left mine a flater black but if you want a glossy, just add a few coats of clear coat.

This will give you a cleaner look and no more rusting.

 

ya most people (shops) will want like 100 per wheel to fix or to powercoat

 

The silver coating on mine is peeling from every direction and 3 out of 4 wheels are rashed. I was wondering if the temperature in Florida was guilty for that. I'm sure I don't need to work to hard to take the lenses of the headlights off as they have been in the oven for 6 years cooking.

 

once the clear coat is broken, the paint will crack/peel off the wheels if not worse.

 

Thank God my car isnt the only one with this disease. I saw a Mercedes a few months back that had this on the wheels too and it made me think of my car. (I've been away from my car for some time. I live in Korea and just recently had it shipped over. I hope to have it here in a week or so.)
I may try that. I just worry about how long that will take to do correctly. I would hate to not finish it in one weekend and have to drive it to work with one normal wheel and three sanded down wheels with no paint. haha

 

with a power sander you can easily do it in a weekend. Sat - prep, Sun - paint

 

Yeah my center caps were horrible, wheels are not so bad just a few scratches. I just went to the stealership with a center cap in hand and told them to order me 4 more. They cost $25 each but now my stock wheels look brand new! You could also try ebay. I didn't have very much luck with them, hence why I went to the stealership.

 

soo Becca you're living a lie in your sig pic huh?

 

I've said many times that my car is stock... Not my fault if you aren't paying attention!

For clarification purposes...

My car is stock! Any and all mods you see in my sig is a photoshop. It is simply what I would like to eventually do to my car!

I hope this clears things up! Oh yeah and I seem to recall smoking your headlight reflectors when I made your sig Ryan...