Reaper's H2 Build

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Hey all,

So I picked up a 2006 H2 that had been treated well, just over a year ago, and wanted to transform her from a mall cruiser to a gentlemanly bruiser befitting a Reapers rig. Its my daily, so it needed to encompass looking at home in an urban executive environment as well as perform off road without looking out of place. I've got some big plans for her in store, but here is what I've managed to accomplish in the meantime.

So far:

Dash trim repaint to similar level of a mercedes piano black gloss
Front dash, A, B & C pillar retrimmed in black suede
Blacked out side markers, turns & rear lights
HID headlights
LED DRLs
Fox 2.0 shocks with remote reservoirs, plan was to be able to move quickly over rough terrain
Steering dampener upgraded to bilstein unit
M1152 wheels & tires with runflat inserts
3/4 blacked out grille & satin body matched skid plate
All interior lights done in red LED
Nerf bar delete
Rear tail light guard delete
Sunroof visor delete

When I bought her:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

M1152 24 bolt wheels, runflats & Good Year Wrangler MT/Rs (kevlar lined sidewalls), running 2.5" billet spacers, FYI the wheels with tires & runflats are around 168 lbs.

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Next came the lighting upgrade, LED full time running DRLs (jumper wire), HID headlights:

Grille work & blacked out signals/side markers/rear lights, had the grille wrapped in vinyl to see if I liked it, now its getting painted for a permanent mod. I wanted to delete all chrome, but leaving 1/4 of it gives the front end the pop I wanted, without turning it into a black hole. I tried to match/balance a bit of it to the rear D rings & plate top, handles & mirrors etc:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Did a full degrease & wash on the suspension parts & engine, love to see her nice & clean, then replaced control arm bump stops & started suspension work:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Decided to blackout the skid plate, visually I feel it lowers the look of the rig to appear more slim top to bottom with more of an H1 type feel as it doesn't look so thick vertically:

Before/after:

Process starting with sanding the oxidation off, (pics of beginning of sanding down the middle):

Self etching primer:

Flat/Satin black base coat:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Final color:

Conversion to red LEDs for all interior lights:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Dash update to piano black, eventually I went to recover the front dash & cluster top to be black suede material to reduce any glare, while in white sealer I test fitted to see if black & white contrast looked good...nope lol:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Dash continued:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

and finally in black:

Bigunit · Aug 13, 2015

Looks great!

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

I was able to gain a decent finish and still have to go back to cut & polish to get rid of a bit of orange peal here and there but a definite improvement over stock I think:

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

More dash work & a few road trip shots on my way to California, as I got to open carry on the way

High Five H2 · Aug 13, 2015

that's a great looking H2. love the humvee wheels.

derian06 · Aug 13, 2015

You should list your painting process, they look amazing.

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

Suffered a few de-laminations from the MT/Rs, so I have a graveyard of wheels (4 blown, 2 loose rims) and i'm going to powder coat a set then replace the ones on the truck with fresh tires/runflats. These tires have a history of being indestructible, I run them at 28 PSI front, 26 rear to get full contact patch; still trying to figure out what is causing the blowouts. The hazy pic is at night after a 85 mph blowout on a right hand sweeping turn...crossed 3 lanes and luckily after the overpass I made it onto the median which was soaked, fighting the truck to a stop. Once damage was surveyed, I limped my way to a truck stop 3.1 miles away on the runflat. The trailer I was towing was around 5,500 lbs.

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

When the rear tire blew (on the road trip to Cali) when I was pulling the trailer caused some damage to the left rear inner fender well:

So, gym time was in order:

When in Tx I rented a car and drove up to my contact in OK to grab a new wheel/tire, whole setup mounted & balanced with runflat was under $200 with a 99% brand new tire. Barely fit in the trunk lol. The tires that blew were are from a guy in east TX. The OK contact is the only contact I'll get military wheels/tires from now. Here's a look inside a setup that I ran a few miles on after a blow out, 28 miles at 65 mph getting the rig to the airport so I didn't miss flying out from TX to Cali for my son's first birthday.

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

This one happened at the top of a trail at Big Bear after some rock/mud fun, it got us all the way down, then the few miles on tarmac to the cabin to put the spare on.

Updated the spash screen on the navi to my old company logo before they sold out (once Prince left, it all went sideways), second shot, I used the former phone speaker hole in the roof to mount a mini iPad while on road trips for map info

All in all, this truck is the best purchase of my life (guns included), H2s are an experience, a perfect compliment to a severely active life, so here's a few random pics road tripping from Tx to Cali etc. and a shot between high end halogen headlights & HIDs.

Reaper550 · Aug 13, 2015

derian06 said:
You should list your painting process, they look amazing.

I'll do that, I used rattle cans but the result looks way better in person. I didn't think people would be interested in how to paint in this medium

USMC_315 · Nov 24, 2015

If I ever get myself another H2, it will look exactly like this. Honestly the best looking H2 I've ever seen, especially love the red interior lights. Job well done sir

Roberts0341 · Jan 20, 2016

What did you have to do to make the rims and wheels fit? I really like those!

3Hummers · Jan 20, 2016

I have run those tires before ( several sets ) and never had a blow out issue. I did run 35 psi. Did not get great tread wear though. My truck weighs about 1500#s more than an H2. Eric is back in the states now.

Reaper's H2 Build

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