Type 65 / Nippy Dashboard

[Colin Wilks]

A friend has asked me what the toggle switch to the right of my speedo does. The car has been off the road for a while now and I don't have access to it due to lockdown. Does anybody know if my vague memory/ guess that it is for instrument backlighting is correct, and indeed whether it is a correct item?

[Ian Williams]

The instrument light should twist to turn on unless someone has modified yours to operate from a switch, certainly the switch is not a standard fitment.

[Chris KC]

Agree with Ian. I understand the only difference between a (late) Nippy and Ruby dash is the speedo and oil pressure gauge.

[Ian Williams]

You mean Box saloon instrument panel not Ruby Chris, and yes the hole for the oil gauge is smaller and the speedo is a 1000 tpm instrument due to the different rear axle ratio.

[Chris KC]

Sorry I think you're right Ian, I was mis-quoting Chris Gould's book in which he actually says "initially the instrument panel was the same as on the 1933 saloon and illuminated by a protruding lamp. Very much later a Ruby panel which has concealed lighting for the instruments was fitted". Thus I am a bit right, but not quite!

[Ian Williams]

Well Chris I guess that it is possible that the very last of the Nippy's had a back lit Ruby panel but personally I have never seen one, like all of us Mr Gould is not infallible and there are a few things in the guide which new information has proven incorrect.

JonE might have further information on this and I suggest that his 65/Nippy site is well worth looking at, I have also suggested to Jon that he and Chris rewrite the guide to bring it in line with current thinking.

[NickB]

This is the back of a very early 65  panel and has that switch. I haven't worked out what it's for.

[Colin Wilks]

My car is a 1934 Type 65 which was restored by Chris Keevill in the 90s. He is fastidious and so I doubt he'd have added it on a whim. The fact that Nick B has the same switch on an early 65 seems to support its originality.

As soon as I can get to it, I'll check what it is wired up to do. The chrome twist on/off lamp works as designed and I always think of that as a map light.

The photo was taken before I had bought the car and the eagle eyed will have noticed that the Ign/Gas control is askew. The linkage at the base of the steering column was also 180° out, so when I first started the engine "A" retarded the timing and "R" advanced it - confusing until I'd worked out what was going on. It was my first experience of manual ignition timing!

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A later thought: is it the headlamp dip switch?

[Colin Wilks]

OK, having had a discussion with another friend with a 65, I have a hypothesis. His "original" and unused dash panel has factory flanged cutouts for all the instruments, plus a neatly drilled diy 1/2" hole mirroring the ignition light, in the same location as my toggle switch.

He created a new panel as part of his restoration but omitted this hole. He dips his headlights via a switch on the steering column as do the earlier saloons (Handbook 1095A p7).

My thinking is that shifting the dip switch from its rather inconvenient location behind the steering wheel onto the panel where mine is would be a logical modification, and perhaps anecdotal reports of this mod drove the later upgrade to the floor mounted dip switch. 

Does anybody else remember having a mini with plastic extensions on the toggle switches for the windscreen wipers and lights so you could maintain the "laid back Italian" driving position in your Recaro seat?

Yes, I really do wish I could get out more!

[NickB]

Mine was still fitted with the steering column dip switch as well as the panel switch Colin.