The Daytona gets detailed

Richard Tipper and the Perfection Limited team restore the Daytona's shine.

For a car that was last restored nearly thirty years ago the general condition of the Daytona is still rather good. The paint looks relatively fresh at events like Goodwood Breakfast Clubs, and it draws plenty of compliments.  There's still plenty of room for improvement though, with the Interior and engine bay in particular need of attention. To ensure the Daytona looks its best for the summer season, I asked Richard Tipper of Perfection Limited (known as @perfectionvalet on Twitter) to give the Daytona a spring tidy-up.

Richard and his colleague Martin arrived on time last Saturday with their fully equipped Toyota van full of every kind of polish and potion necessary to clean any car.  After a general inspection of the car and what was needed, work began under the bonnet to remove the dirt and a light film of engine oil that had built up. Once clean, the engine bay was polished to bring up a shine that makes the engine look as good as the day it left the factory in Maranello back in 1973.

Moving onto the rest of the car, attention was turned to the brightwork. The rear bumpers in particular suffer from the effects of their proximity to the exhausts, and the chrome has worn away in places. Even so, after a thorough clean and polish they shined up beautifully, especially the reversing lights mounted underneath the bumpers.

Inside the car the leather was cleaned and buffed up, and the carpets removed and jet washed. Richard was briefly foxed by the original mousehair covering on the dashboard - even though he has worked on a couple of Daytonas before, they had non-original leather-covered dashboards. The mousehair is an early form of Alcantara and it's very difficult to source the correct material today. Original though it is, it absorbs a lot of dirt, however, and after testing some non-visible areas it was determined a damp sponge would clean it up nicely.. 

What really makes the car pop are the little touches that a regular clean by me would easily miss. Richard spent some time cleaning out the exhaust tips, and even the inside of the cigarette lighter did not escape his attention. 

I was particularly impressed by Richard's work on the rear Ferrari badge. In order to clean it properly Richard removed the badge from the car, revealing a lot of dirt that had collected under the badge over the years. A thorough clean with cotton buds between the letters had the badge shined up a treat.

After around five hours of work (equating to ten man hours between the two of them), the difference was astonishing. What was already a great-looking car now looks truly stunning, and makes my own car cleaning efforts pale into insignificance. You can see more of the results in the gallery at the bottom of this article.

Richard and the Perfection team work on all cars, regardless of age and value, and if you think your car could benefit from his team's attention then give hime a call on 07860 336825. The work doesn't come cheap, but if your car comes up as well as the Daytona has - and it will, trust me - then it's money well spent. One of my Drive Cult colleagues has also had Richard detail his new acquisition with similarly stunning results, although you will have to wait to see what the car is (unless you already know from following our contributor's Twitter feeds!)

After Richard and Martin had finished I couldn't resist taking the car out for a short drive, ostensibly to make sure the brakes were properly dry but also just for fun. The journey was somewhat limited by not having much fuel in the car and the ridiculous recent panic buying of fuel in the UK making V-Power unleaded unavailable in the local petrol stations, but even over the few miles travelled the car subconsciously felt better for its clean up. I can't wait to get her back out on the road again.

All photos by Richard Tipper.

Gallery