S Fairing Project - New Dashboard

The new dashboard I'd ordered was delivered to the Beemer dealer yesterday and I picked it up today along with oil change supplies for Maria, my 2004 1150RT. I am riding her to Wyoming this weekend and she was close to her scheduled oil change which I did today, early.

So anyways, I talked to Clem, the Vintage motorcycle Mechanic at the dealer, and he told me you need a special tool to install the brass/copper inserts that hold the new dash onto the fairing. Damn I thought to myself on the way home; now I've got to remove the fairing, take it in, and have Clem put the new dash on. I was bummed.

Got home, changed the oil on Maria which took me past 1800 hrs with dinner included. No real issues with the oil change, some seepage after the change but I think its because I overfilled the oil filter before I mounted it onto the motorcycle. At least, I hope so. So far, no leaks after some more tightening of the filter. 11nm is apparently not enough.

Around 8pm or so, I went ahead and took the old dash off after removing the windshield. I had the idea to replicate what the "special tool" did but in a cruder fashion. Basically, I'd put the insert in so that the flanged end was on the inside; then I'd cut/bend/flatten the outside edges of the insert manually. This worked out very well I must say! Not as pretty as with the "special tool" but it works! The plastic expanding rivets hide my crude work so it's all good!

New Dashboard

As you can see, it looks pretty good with the dashboard in one complete piece as opposed to before where the ends had been trimmed off:

Old Dashboard

Now to the finishing touches, some plastic trim work perhaps to fill in the missing portions of the fairing itself. The plastic trim will be added so that it does not impact on the brake reservoir on the right side of the fairing.

All in all, this part of the project worked out pretty good and I didn't have to unmount the fairing which is a pain! I am a happy camper.