Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Too funny I was born in Monticello, UT and used to go back every summer. We still takes trips up there all the time but I don't have anything currently planned.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Next update:

Plasti Dip is officially completely gone!!!

I took all the wheels and had them rebalanced to get the weights off the outside. Glad I did as they were completely out of balance, I can definitely feel a difference on the highways.

I pulled all the Plasti Dip off, scuffed all the chrome, primered and painted then with Dupli Color Low Gloss Black Engine Enamel. They turned out great.

I also added black extended lugs to cover the studs to finish everything off. Onto the pics!





More to come!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Looks great! Love the blue/black combo.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Back in the day when we were all kids, LoJac963 was one of those kids on the block that got all the COOL stuff we all wish we had.

Yeah, mom always liked HIM better............:giggling:

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

lol!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Looks good, why did you decide to switch from plastidip to the engine enamel?
Also, any special techniques for spraying it vs plastidip? Plastidip goes on so easy and works well, how did the Dupli Color Low Gloss Black Engine Enamel treat you?
Which primer did you use?

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Sorry accely I didn't realize there was a new post here.

I had multiple issues with the Plasti Dip. I didn't prep my wheels before spraying it because I wasn't sure how I would like the black. Needless to say after the first auto carwash 3 of the wheels started peeling around the outer perimeter.

I cut out the peeled sections and resprayed those portions, it never looked as good. Then eventually with the sun it started to turn gray around the edges.

My turning point was when I decided I wanted to take the center caps off for good and find nice looking lugs. After wirebrushing the hell out of the center of the hubs to spray them with the low gloss black I decided that's what I was going to do with the rims also.

As far as prep I just took a red 3m pad to all the chrome and textured surfaces to scuff them up a little. Just enough to get them a little matte. Actually when I decided to do this all the auto stores were closed so I ran to wal mart and picked up some Rust-Oleum automotive primer. Their spray tip sprays a ton of paint.

One can easily covered all 4 wheels. After that dried I sprayed 2 good coats of the Dupli-Color Low Gloss Black. I just sprayed in sections with an overlapping wet coat. Let them dry for about an hour then threw them back on the rig since it was sitting on 4 jackstands.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Turned out real nice! :beerchug:

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

thank you sir :beerchug:

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Finally got my trailing arms installed last night. These are from 3C FAB and were drastically cheaper than Hotchis and Edelbrock so I thought I'd give them a shot. They have zerks to grease them and have Energy Suspension polyurethane bushings.

Here was the first issue:

Apparently in 2006 the bolts went 2mm larger so the bushing sleeves I had were too small. I contacted the seller who promptly called Energy Suspension and had 4 larger bushing sleeves sent to me. I pushed out the old sleeves and put the larger sleeves in and problem solved.

Here's a pic of the new arms:




Now install instructions from one of the other forums tech section couldn't have been further from the truth. Passenger side goes in very quickly but the driver side had me covered in oil and dirt not to mention the amount of swearing that went on for over an hour.

Basically in order to get the front bolt out you have to completely drop the gas tank not just the skid plate for the tank-that added significant time onto the install. However once the gas tank is out of the way and a couple other brackets are removed I finally had the new arm installed.

Driver side pic:



Passenger side pic:




I went with the Super Silver II powdercoat. I wanted something to stand out a bit but not screaming loud like red for instance. They match my Purple Cranium diff protector pretty close.

I've read new arms will decrease the rattle and hopping of the rear tires when going over bumps so today I nailed a speed bump and I kid you not the rear tires went over the bump and that was the end of it. No rattling the interior or bouncing in the rear. Definitely worth the money!!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Finally pulled the trigger on the E&G Offroad Flares. Little bit of a pain to install but finally got them on and they look hands down awesome. These rigs should have come with flares like these from the factory!

Pics...










I've got another project in the works I'm hoping to wrap up soon so more pics to come!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Latest update although a small one....

Finally bought some Weathertech Digitalfit floor mats. I've always wanted a set so they're in after a good vacuuming.



Driver Side:



Passenger Side:



Driver Side installed:




They are very rigid and stay in place nicely. My current ongoing project with some switches has hit a snag but I'll post that up once I'm finished with it!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

(picture fyr145 sitting in chair at a table at his house late one night writing to Santa Claus by candlelight.............)

Dear Santa,

How is the North Pole?? I have been very good this year. Since I have been so good this year, I wanted to ask that you fill up your sleigh with some cool upgrades for my H2 as well. You see, I have this fellow H2 owner named LoJac963. He lives in the same valley that I do and he has many cool aftermarket items on his H2. Mom always liked LoJac963 better than me thus he always gets the cool upgrades before I do. I am hoping that you Santa can help me with my mods & upgrades this year and just place them under the tree and I will take care of the rest. Have a safe trip and tell Rudolph hello for me too.

Thanks Santa,
Fyr145

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

LOL you're crazy, where you been man? We still need to meet up sometime!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

I'm still around, just working away and lurking on all the H2 sites and helping where I can.

I've been waiting for you to set up a time, day, and place to meet up so we can compare H2's. Maybe over some lunch with some other H2'ers. I still have that H2 kit if you're still interested.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Most definitely I'll take it off your hands.

I'm heading back to school at the beginning of November.....ugh so hopefully there's some time possibly before that between work and family.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Here's the latest. I met FYR and installed some LED's in his DRL's. He was showing me around his rig and he had the IPCW clear corner LED's. I've never like clear lens anything but the way these blend into the chrome grill really make them look great. Not to mention how bright they are. Got back home from his place and put my order in.

They arrived yesterday. I thought they just popped in from the back but I ended up having to remove my brushguard and grill but it was well worth it. Enough talking, onto the pics!

Boxed:


Installed:




Parking lights on, they are much brighter when the blinker is on and look hands down awesome at night!



Now maybe I can get some of my other pending projects done......

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Looks awesome bro !!!!!

I was surprised that you had to take your brush guard off. I didn't have to remove any of my stuff at all. Interesting.

Its still a very nice mod. :perfect10s:

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Thanks!

Stupid me thought they just fit in from inside the hood. Until I opened it up and realized they were sandwiched between the hood and grill. My brushguard didn't have enough room to pull the grill forward enough to get the corners out.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Nice work on the LEDs. The blue and white will be very fatiguing on your eyes especially if you can't dim them down enough. Red is the way to go.
Do you have a link to the LED source?
Also, just wait until you smack that lower front light bar or catch the tab on the rear diff cover. :giggling:

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

If you're talking about the individual LED bulbs those were from a seller on Ebay-nothing special as long as you get the voltages correct. I wouldn't necessarily say they are brighter than stock just a crisper white compared to the nasty stock yellow. Also mine is a road queen right now, its my DD so I can't afford to tear it up on the trails...

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Decided to match up my front LED's with rear LED tail lights. Always wanted to give them a shot so figured why not. I'd say they are about 3 times brighter than the stock tails. The blinker and brake lights when on are insanely bright! I didn't put the tail light guards back on just yet because I have 520 lumen LED's for the reverse lights I'm still waiting on along with a pair of red LED's for the lower bumper lights so everything blinks at the same rate.

Pics:



Stock on the right and LED on the left for comparison. That's just the driving lights on.



Couple pics of both LED tails installed:





Overall I am very satisfied with them. Arizona has terrible drivers so I like how bright they are, hopefully prevent any idiots from rear ending me!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Hey..............

Where have I seen these before???;) ;) ;)

I too changed out to the LED brake lights but after I installed them, I discovered that I liked the smoke covered lenses that looked more in line with the upper vents just above the brake lights. (you saw them when you were here).

Anyway, good choice!!! I also hope that people see my back side easier with all those LED's now. SO far so good.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Thanks FYR! I also have 520 lumen LED bulbs on the way for the reverse lights and the lower bumper lights but I just couldn't wait any longer to get these installed.

Those LED's still working out for you?

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Oh yeah :D

Nice and bright !!!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Another small update, finally done with the tails!

My 520 lumen LED's arrived, white for the reverse lights and red for the lower bumper lights:



LED in the left lower bumper light for comparison, they are much brighter than the stock bulbs:



Here's the white reverse LED in and tail light guards back on:



Side by side of the white reverse LED vs. stock bulb:



Now I need to figure out which project and box of stuff I want to open up next lol.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

I'll never get caught up........................:crying:

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Start buying those mods!!! I'll even help you install :dancingbanana:

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

I would need a "laundry list" of each type of LED bulb and amounts so I could have it all in one box then start on one side of the rig and work my way around.

That would be a nice project to do.

(I just discovered a tiny exhaust leak on the passenger side so I thought since I have to take apart the exhaust anyway for new gaskets, I was thinking about putting shorty headers on to replace the stock manifold.)

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

I would agree with shorties or LT's. I'm kind of looking forward to a leak so I have an excuse for some LT's lol!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Finally finished up an ongoing project to add a switch panel with OTRATTW switches.

I used Bondo Glass to do the bulk of the filling, looked like absolute hell. This was my first time ever taking on a project like this.

After Bondo Glass:



Cleaned up:



After Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty to refine the big imperfections:



All painted up:



Pic of the switches almost wired up completely:



Few pics installed:





Glad it is complete. I jumped the ground wires as the instructions say you can. I also jumped both the positive terminals but the top LED's stay on all the time which is odd since the source is a 12 volt ignition.....something I'm going to play around with.

The 3 right switches are fillers but fully wired with signal wires running to the engine compartment. Basically when I add more mods I'll just order a new switch face and its good to go.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Looking great man, nice work.

The first time you upgraded your fog light bulbs, you say "LED towers" what did you buy? I'd like to do the same. Also what did you get for headlights?

thanks!

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

The first LED's I ever put in my DRL's were from ebay. They were the exact same bulbs from superbrightleds.com but for a fraction of the price. Look for SMD ceramic substrate LED bulbs.

My headlights are HID's from ddmtuning.com. I originally went with 55 watt 10000k but eventually dropped the bulbs to 8000k. Wanting them to match my LED DRL's I'm thinking of dropping them again to 6000k.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

hey Lojac, what kind of LEDs did you need to use inside the steering wheel? do the buttons just pop right off using a flat head screwdriver or panel pryer?

Also, for the gauge cluster, I have some lights out I need to fix. I replaced some of the motors for the needles but I couldnt remember how the lights were setup, are they also soldered?

thanks

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Yes everything is soldered in. The cluster bulbs have bases so you can remove the filament bulbs and bend the leads of the LED's around the bases or just skip the base and bend the leads and solder them in place.

Steering wheel controls you can wiggle out forward a little bit then you need to find something to reach behind to hit the release for the wire harness. Once each pack is out you'll see little tabs on the side. You'll have to take something to pry the backing off of each button pack to get to the guts. Once inside you'll see how easy it is to replace those also.

Overall replacing EVERY light in my rig was highly time consuming and required some ingenuity in placing the LED's but it's not impossible by any means. With basic soldering skills anyone could do it.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Oops, the steering wheel lights take a standard 12 volt LED bulb. I believe I used 5mm LEDs, also be sure to get them with a diffused lens so you don't have any "hot spots"

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

thanks- So the lights in the steering wheel are not soldered correct? Once inside you just remove old bulb and put in new 5mm LED?

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

No, when you're talking about any of the buttons, instrument panel or anything like that they are ALL soldered in.

Hit radio shack and get some good solder wick to get the old solder off. They also have very fine flux core solder. It is really not that difficult. You'll see once you get in there how to solder the LED's in.

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

Where did you get the diffused LED's, LoJac?

Re: LoJac963's Deuce Build
 

I had found a seller on Ebay with really cheap LED's located here in the US. I can't remember the sellers though....