Switches and Jewels

[gs.davies]

I made a start on cleaning up the years of crud on my 'new' speedometer last night. I was looking at the jewels on it and they look different to ones I've seen before, almost like they've melted a little bit.

Got some questions for those who may know more than I do;

What colour are the lights supposed to be? I have;

Green for Oil
Read for Main Beam
Pink (!) for Charge (though this looks like a really badly faded red)

The clock itself I believe is from a 1959 or a 1960 car (it was in a cardboard binnacle) and is cream faced with a red needle, five digit odo. The other early clocks I have had used red for oil and Ign and a bluey purple for main beam.

Is there any way of dating these clocks out of interest?

Also, the binnacle came with two little black switches for the panel lights. My car certainly didn't have original switches and in any case, they were totally knackered so can't be reused. The ones that have come with the clock are made by Arcolectric and have a small black plastic lever. Both look alright to use again. Would these be correct for a 1961 car?

[minivan60]

It seems that sn number is 4409\00 so it is a 59-61 Austin speedo.Colours are right.In my 60 Morris van there is also green oil light,but i also have 62 Austin speedo which has red light.Im pretty sure that those switches are correct,at least early -62 cars have them.

[gs.davies]

Great thanks. What colour should the inner surround for the dial be? As you can see on my clock it's seen better days. In some places it's a deep burgundy, and there's cream, rust and blue showing through!

[Daz1968]

Those switches look same as on my 1962 morris, I can't vouch for speedo as morris is different

[minivan60]

Inner surround should be black.

[nick rogers]

Inner surround is maroon on Austin cream speedos and black on silver Morris ones. The panel light switch is the correct 'square' section one. These switches are pretty fragile and it's unusual to find good working ones. This is the only place on the car that uses this particular switch.

[nick rogers]

You also have the early cream cardboard binnacle. They were replaced by the plastic version.

[gs.davies]

Thanks Nick, I can see the Maroon on the hidden side of the surround. Any idea what paint code it is? not the same as the XPAG engine Maroon perchance?

[minivan60]

Sorry,my mistake with colour.

[nick rogers]

I think that I have used Maroon B, a std. mk1 colour. It seems close enough.