A friend of mine washed my Defender on Sunday with a product he sells commercially to carwash/truck wash applications. it looks like it has melted the paint off the plastic. Has anyone else ever seen this before? the chemical is a turps base with two soaps surfecant.






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What did your friend say? hopefully not to not use his products again and that he will repair the damage caused by his products. My condolences and when i see the damage I feel your pain. Trim restorer products or the like might help hide the damage. I have had a great experience using Chemical Guys - Factory Finish trim coating and protectant in the spray can.
Turpentine or Mineral spirits (aka paint thinner) are no good for ABS, HDPE, EPDM plastics. All rubber and most metals. I would not want his product anywhere near my car as a full on auto wash. PH neutral auto wash soaps are readily available and preferred. Plastic trim already has a problem with fading and fogging as it is.

 

Clearly his product is utter crap -- sorry. I think the fix is probably replacement of all the trim around the car.

I had something similar happen on an LR3 in like 2006 and -- we replaced it all and new front and rear bumpers. A detailer sprayed something on, then left the car in the 100 degree heat for hours in Tennessee.

I believe your trim is plastic, not painted. Some spec (X, X Dynamic, V8, etc) have gloss black (no different than the grey paint on your car, just black). Other Defenders, usually lower specs, have the matte finish textured plastic. (which... I wish I had on mine... the gloss painted stuff scuffs up Offroad quite alot)