The long way round

Once the front suspension was rebuilt I expected the steering to be much lighter than before. However, I was little dissapointed by the fact it was still heavier than I would have liked. Don't get me wronr it was better and yet I appreciate the steering will be heavy due to not being power assisted. But all of my other 'old' cars never had steering as heavy as this. I decided that the uj's on the steering shaft may be a little out of line and that there was less leverage on the steering wheel as it had been changed for a smaller one.
Oh yeh. I forgot to mention the brakes were sorted out easily when I found the seals had gone on the master cylinder and the servo was filled with brake fluid. I ordered and fitted a new unit and the brakes were sorted.
So back to the plan. My parents had now settled in their new home up north and I had to arrange to deliver the car to them. The journey directly is about 170 miles. But me being me why make life easy for yourself. Besides there was method in my madness to drive from south Essex to Derbyshire via Cambridge.
I decised to drive the car to the MGBhive for them to check the steering rack and column alignment and column bushes as well as fit a new larger steering wheel. WHile they worked on the car my friend and I (who followed me up there, and to provide a lift home) would have a bite to eat and then pick the car up after the work was done. Then We could continue our journey to deliver the car. Well the drive to Cambridge was nice. It was the first time I really had a chance to drive the car. This time I was able to wind her up to motorway speeds safe in the knowledge that I could slow down and stop if I needed to. The car drove well with good oil pressure and the water temperature stayed within limits. Due to the relatively new interior the seats were also very comfortable and the heavy steering was never an issue.
After the car was worked on and it was given a clean bill of health I test drove it and once agin was still a little dissapointed with the amount of steering effort required to turn the wheel. The larger steering wheel etc had made a difference but if some is good more is better.
We then made our way across country to Derbyshire.
Just thought of another thing I had forgotten. Knowing that I was to be driving for such a long time there was no way I was going to drive all that way without a radio. Speakers were already installed so all I had to do was connect up an old radio I had laying about and that would be that. I used the wires that were taped up after the previous owners had removed the cd player and all was fine.
The drive to my parents house was fine and almost a pleasure until we got to Mansfield where the traffic got heavier. This only became a problem beacuse we didn't realy know where we were going and neither of us had a codriver to look out for road signs etc. Anyway we made it and I pulled up on my parents driveway. Unfortunatelly I scraped the bottom of the car (the exhaust most likely) as there is a crest where the path goes up then back down again. No harm done though he will just have to be careful when getting the car out.
After saying hello and ensuring the kettle was on I jacked up the car and drained the engine oil while it was nice and hot.
Once we had been watered I changed the filter and replaced the oil. Fired it up to ensure oil pressure was as it should be and that was my job done.