trying to solve this problem but to no avail,

when the the car is off, no keys in it, the oil warning light and handbrake light glow dimly, they go off when the car is on, anyone have any thoughts on how to fix it, or is it a short somewhere and ill have to start trapesing through the loom

check the earth to the insrument cluster and see whether this does anything. I would thing the earth and a shared switched live is the only thing they have in common

Try disconnecting the alternator plug, if the lights go out then problem is alternator.

Sounds like you have something that is feeding 12v back to the ignition circuit.

With the ignition off, check if there is any volts on the live side of the coil (not the Dizzy side)

I would also put a voltmeter on the LT (non Dizzy ) side of the ciol, then replicate the fault and see what happens to the votlage reading. It might give a clue.
This is assuming you have a std ignition system, ie not Megasquirt or a ECU type system.

99% of elec problems are a bad earth or a shorted out fuse, check those 1st.