Afaik the handles on the hood are for tieing a sling to a helicopter so the humvee can be flown off. They're not connected to the hood, but are attached to the chassis and come through a hole. Hood bulge looks better but I'm not sure the curve is 100% correct yet when seen from the side.
Sorry about your friend. This is coming along nicely! I think the hood handles should be a little wider and larger as well. They should be mounted/welded on a plate that is securely fastened to the hood.
Looking pretty cool so far. - It seems a bit wide. It might be helpful to block in the entire proportions in low poly form before jumping into the details. - There is one more grill vent on your model than on the ref. They also all fit within the width of the hood grill. - The sling loops on the hood seem kind of flat and…
The hood doesn't bulge up towards the center. HMMWV's barely have any curved surfaces. Check this refpic: Try to gather a bit more reference, this sort of accuracy errors are pretty severe and you should be able to spot them yourself ;) Also, your bullbar is really flimsy and thin.