On the Road!

Rather a momentous step today as I purchased one day insurance and actually got the car out on the road for the very first time! I wanted to get it out and road test it to determine if there were any issues to be dealt with before getting proper monthly insurance for the Spring/Summer season. By the way, I have applied for British Columbia "Collector Car" status, which allows me to insure the car at about 50% of regular cost, yet with all of the same driving privileges. I already have that status with my '84 VW Westfalia campervan and my '82 Honda CB450 motorcycle.
I wanted to do the road trial today, despite the heavy rain, because my brother in law was visiting, and he has some professional experience with old British cars.
So... any issues? Not a lot.
The engine fires up on first crank and purrs like a kitten. It was a terribly rainy afternoon, so I was pleased to see that the wipers and the defrost (demist) work well, though the wipers will need new springs to get sufficient pressure on the windscreen for a proper wipe.
I was concerned that I could not get the headlights to work at first, but eventually discovered that the switch is a little fiddly. Once I learned the correct positioning of the switch, no problem.
There are two primary issues needing to be addressed.
First, the "ignition" light stays on, indicating possible generator problems. A voltmeter on the battery showed only 8 volts of storage, and when the engine was running, still only 8 volts. That said, it started fine... probably a dozen starts over the afternoon, and it ran for about 30 minutes with lights, fan and wipers all working, which puts battery discharge in doubt. I will have to pursue this to see what is actually happening.
The second issue is the transmission linkage. It is a bit difficult to find reverse, and even more difficult to find the way out of reverse. It also seems a bit too difficult to get the shifter over to third gear, and the reciprocal difficulty getting back to second rather than fourth. I don't now if this is just a matter of me getting used to it, or if there are adjustment that can be made.
If those are the only two issues needing to address, then I am in pretty good shape to get the car more permanently on the road.