Yes, Norway !

Car out of storage after winter and driven for the first time in nearly a year. took it to work to give it a shakedown and stretch it's legs.

No major issues so far, drives well, still pulls well, stops well, and drives straight and true, although the engine management light has a tendency to flash for a millisecond or two when it's on full boost, I'm not sure that concerns me massively to just pootle around.
Still plagued with some knocks and bumps from the rear, but maybe I just haven't used it enough to find out which knocks are normal......

Apart from that, just a couple of storage issues, wipers running slow, windows working slow, nothing a little bit of lube won't fix.
Driver's door will be coming off soon anyway to figure out why it's loose, so windows are on the "while I'm in there" category.

I had managed to get the heater fan working on all speeds, turned out there was some corrosion around the brushes, but now it's stopped again, so that warrants further investigatiing.
Temperature's hovering around 1ºC outside, I've spent warmer journeys to work, had to keep the window open to stop the windscreen steaming up.

Alpine might have to play second on the to-do list again this year for all those little jobs, I've started a mini restoration on my Alfa 155 V6, so that might take up a lot of the summer.
It's currently having some welding done in the boot, and the rear inner wings, and about to have a rear end suspension refurbishment, most likely a paint job too.
Good time to fit a DTM bodykit if I can get permission from the banker...........

So door repairs continue, plans are laid, metal bracing is being cut and awaiting adhesive arriving from the UK

Found the source of the sticking window.
At the back of the window there are two sliders held to the glass by tiny little countersunk torx head screws.
had trouble with the top one loosening itself from time to time, this time both had fallen off and jammed the glass.

I'm thinking maybe the threads on the screws are a bit tired so best to replace, will do the other door too as a precaution.
I guess I could stick them back in with some araldite or something, but that might make them tricky to remove if I ever needed to.

Anybody know what size they are ?

Looks like M3 x 10, but at that size, hard to tell, I guess they could be 3.5 or 4mm.

Anybody replaced them ?

If the screw is shown in the parts manual, sometimes a google search will provide more descriptive details about the part number.
I might need to check mine, as window up and down are both quite slow.

Job done.

The door had definitely been repaired (bodged) before, the bottom hinge area didn't even have any fibreglass left, it was held in place by a dollop of adhesive and a large lump of bondo on either side of it to jam it in place.

Used some angle plates fixed underneath to support, also made them a lot wider to spread the load a bit.
Then laid a good layer of fibreglass on top of that.
Biggest problem was that the extra thickness of the plates made it extremely difficult to get the bolts in from the back, glad I got an adhesive with a long curing time.
Some bad words were said, and some skin lost.

Now got it all back together, and all appears fine, made a template from the pillar on the car to get the hinge positions since I had zero reference points, not happy that the top hinge is 100% straight, but it is near as dammit and works.

Window is also fixed. If anyone else is having trouble with those little screws, M3 x 8 cs are just the dab, got them on the Bay of E for a couple of quid.

Just got to get it painted now, and rehung, be glad to get the job out of the way, my to-do list is getting longer and longer.

Next job is to tidy up the sitting room floor before SWMBO returns from holiday so she is none the wiser...........

I am sure that SWMBO will be happy that you have made progress on car while she was not there.
It's not as if you have been partying with out her and spending money on other women or drink every night.
Good effort and well done.

Door is back on the car, fits and all working, just waiting for my trusty assistant to have time to help me fine tune the adjustment.

Next matter..........
Does anybody have a pair of the air intake vents which sit at the back window pillars of the GTA ?

My passenger one flew off last time I drove it, it's been plastic welded before, and is really brittle, so don't fancy the chances of being able to fix it and it looking anywhere decent.

Looking at the other side, looks like it's ready to do the same.

Also looking for the triangular tensioner on the alternator belt.
This one's not really important, I jist haven't had time to get it off and source another bearing.

Back in Blightly in July, so can maybe collect depending on location, or post to my parents in Scotland.

Hit me up with a price................

Nothing to report, haven't touched the car this year at all, it's done less than 100 miles.
Little cruise and a meet today at a local museum, just thought I would share a few pics.

And a little tunnel video........

Not exactly Spielberg quality, just taken on my passenger's phone.
https://youtu.be/CpCYQ1NWtuE

[BIG_MVS]

Lovely Pics Bob thanks for sharing.

[The Saint]

FAB!!! always good to see how the cars that leave the UK are doing.... Love the video...

Investigating the heater fan ready for moving the car when I move house next month.

Strong smell of petrol when I opened up the hood.
Guess that will keep me busy for a while trying to find it....
Car always seems to pick its times to be a git ! Lots of packing to do and trying to push on to get the Alfa running for the move.
No wonder I drink.

Been a smell there faintly for a while, so I presume whatever was gradually starting to leak has had enough.

Earlier cars didn't have a "breather" pipe to the rear of the car and a smell of petrol is common as the petrol tank breathes into the boot.

Early Performance Car magazine review of the GTA Turbo mentioned this and I've experienced it too.

Could it be this that you're smelling?

I have heard the same, tank breather is in the front...... where the fan blows it into the cabin too.

This pic might help. It is taken from the parts book showing the breather arrangement of the pre 1998 models, just like Jon and Simon suggests.
Items 9, 10, 11, and 22 are the ones to note. You will see that in the parts list, the second Pt No's for each. (except item 22, which may or may not be fitted to both models) has a "k" after them, this denotes post 1998 models.
It might be worth checking the condition of the rubber pipework for splits or disconnection. Item 10 seems to be a metal pipe.
One other important thing about petrol fumes being pumped into the car via the heating system, is to make sure that the rubber seal that runs across the boot space just in front of the "chocolate box" scuttle, is in place and that each end of it is a tight fit to the sides. This will ensure any fumes that filter into the boot space cannot be drawn into the heater.
And make sure that no one has extended the seal, that wraps around the whole boot, across the the scuttle just in front of the windscreen. This is actually where the air is drawn for the heater, and because there is no "ram effect" for the air, this is the reason the heater fan is running all the time when the ign is on.
I hope this helps.

Haven't actually been in the car yet, just opened the bonnet to pull the fan motor.
Smells a bit more like a leak than just venting fumes, so guess what I'm doing this weekend ?

I maybe disturbed something fragile when I was moving stuff around to take a look at the crossmember back in summer.
Diagram is fantastic, thanks, at least it gives a good idea where to start

Not a massive issue, just as I say, the car seems to know when the to-do list is bulging at the seams.