2003 Honda Element build on a budget.

[BraveLittleToaster]

This is my initial build. It's no where near as impressive as most on here but I enjoy it. From here on out It will be a piece by piece upgrade and slow going, but please feel free to pass along any deals for anything that you guys feel should be upgraded. The entire time I was putting this together, I kept budget in mind and tried to keep the cost to as little as possible (as "rewarding" as it is, the Navy doesn't pay enough to go all out on a hobby like this.)

First and foremost I would like to introduce The Brave Little Toaster, a 2003 Honda Element EX that I got for a steal. Minor paint work and a little interior refreshing needed allowed me to get this bad boy for 2.5k below blue book.

This is the day I bought it. (Aug 2011)



and here it is now



Exterior Upgrades include:
-Headlight assembly from 2006-2008
-Bull Bar and Side Steps
-Cleared Side Markers

-Front Window Tint

Future Upgrades Will Include:
-OEM Fogs
-Yakima LoadWarrior (Or Similar)
-1.5"-2" Drop
-Widening Stance
-New Wheels/Tires

-Paint (Charcoal Grey on Black)

Now on to the interior

This has been my main focus since I bought the car and it is finally coming together like it is supposed to. One more major purchase and I will be pretty much done and start the restore process.

Dash

This shows my not quite failed but first attempt at dash painting. I learned a lot in the process and eventually strip, resand, and redo the paint.

The deck is an Alpine CDE-HD138BT I got just after the newest model came out and took advantage of the price drop.

Mids and Highs are the Sony GS series component and coaxials. For the brand that put out Xplodes I'm actually very impressed with the sound quality and range of these. No where near Focal/JL quality but for what I spent on them, I am more than happy with them for the time being.

For the low end I have a Memphis M5 15" in a fiberglass box made for the spare tire well. I got the box off of another Element owner for $200. After resealing and carpeting the box I still feel like I came out on top.

And under the cover

Forgive the copper strands and some of the wiring, this is the only picture I have right now and that was taken just after wiring and before clean up, but you get the general idea.

The sub amp is again a Sony GS series amp pushing 600w RMS @ 2ohms. The 4 channel is a DB Drive dba 80.4 II series.

And that is it so far other than a few minor interior upgrades.

Total cost everything so far is just under $1900. With the retail costs of all this somewhere near $4000 and that's not including what I would have paid for install of most of this if I hadn't done it on my own I think I'm doing pretty good. I'm hoping complete the entire car for less than 5k and I'm pretty sure I will be able to hit the mark.

Please share any comments and suggestions.