I will be starting my restoration project next month 
On my car the drivers side door is not well aligned - the door sticks out at the bottom at the back on the drivers door but it is a perfect fit on the passenger side
I have noticed in pictures and seeing other elans that this seems to be quite common
Is this adjustable or is it an elan āfeatureā 
Thanks in advance
James
James,
Itās a feature but sounds like youāre lucky that one fits well, or has been fixed sometime.
You can achieve a little by adjusting door hinges and lockplate and sometimes the door rubbers are aftermarket and a bit thick but in many cases the solution is ultimately surgery on the offending door to reduce itās āthicknessā. This is usually achieved by cutting a thin āsliceā in the doorshell starting from the bottom rear corner - slice out the required thickness as far as necessary forward and up and then clamp the inner and outer sides together and re-glass the joint.
For my part, I have become rather fond of the āearsā on my car but if/when the day arrives for repainting I will probably have them done.
Good luck,
James, It is a common problem. I, like you, have a passenger door which is perfect and a drivers door which sticks out.
It seems that the problem is worse on later cars (S4/Sprint) and as Elliot says the cure is radical surgery on the door to reshape the curvature.
On my car I decided not to do it during the restoration but I must admit it is something which niggles at me nearly every time I look at the car.
I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky ā¦ at least itās only one door 
James, your passenger side door is wrong! 

Thanks for replies - I can see owning an elan is going to be fun 
James,
Here is a posting from the archives of lotuselan.net
====================================================
-Will Grainger
1970 S4
45/9693
Message 70 of 17313
From: Randall Fehr <[email protected]
Date: Thu Jun 24, 1999 7:03 pm
Subject: Re: Door Gaps and new material on LotusElan.net
My information about the door molding problem came from Ron Hickman (Lotus
chief designer at the time). He and Hickman were discussing body
differences through the series and one of his anecdotes was that
several sets of door molds had been made for S3-S4 production but
somehow most of them were lost or mistakenly destroyed. Those that
remained produced imperfectly-fitting doors.
However, this does not explain how the doors came out ill-fitting. It
seemed to me that the problem could arise through inaccurate jigging for
the wet bond of the door shell halves. Several years ago I had restored my
Elan S3 without addressing this problem because I could only see
approaching it much as Brian Walton describes, and decided it was too
complicated and risky for me to attempt at that time.
My new theory resulted in a technique for improving the door fit without
touching the outer shell at all - no repainting is required.
The procedure:
- Remove latch components, window motor and frame.
- Separate the door shell halves by cutting the bonding flange where they
were mated originally. Use a coping saw, hacksaw blade, and/or very thin
power cutting wheel. Cut carefully through the center of the flange in an
attempt to leave half the thickness on each shell. Start at the top rear
and cut around to approximately the front bottom corner. Patience requiredā¦
- The door will be floppy at this point. Twist it and clamp the flanges
together in a new position that gives good panel fit all around. Some
readjustment of the hinges may also be required. Use pop rivets or sheet
metal screws through the flange - just one or two will do for trials. When
final position is determined, drill for a few more rivets or screws but
donāt install yet.
- Temporarily refit window frame. Some re-shimming of the frame to the
inside of the door shell may be required for proper fit to the top and
windscreen pillar. Some trimming of the top of the door may also be
required. Or readjustment of flange position.
- Mix up resin and prepare strips of glass strand mat (or alternatively a
good fiberglass adhesive) for re-bonding the flange. Spread it apart, apply
the resin and mat on the flange mating surfaces and clamp together with
rivets or screws, supplemented if necessary by spring clamps or even
clothespins.
- When cured, remove or grind off rivets or screws, trim excess bonding
agent, clean, and reassemble. Some paint touch-up may be called for on the
flange edge and where holes were drilled.
Randall
Randall Fehr Restorations
Seattle
Both sides of mine fit perfectly! Until I installed the door gasketsā¦ you know the rest of the story
So I had no idea there was something I needed to rectify.