I wanted a dashboard for my 2003 R1150RT and decided to make my own instead of buying one.
First I laid out the shape of the dash on cardboard -
Then I cut a few short lengths of steel for brackets, drilled mounting holes in them, then mounted the brackets to the fairing -
I then "eyeball marked" where I wanted the bend to be on the first bracket, squared it up in the vise and hammered it into the angle (took a few tries to get the angle correct) -
After I got the first bracket made I duplicated the angle for the 2nd one.
The brackets on the fairing -
I set the cardboard mockup on the brackets to do some more eyeball measurements -
I sat my Garmin 205 GPS on the mockup to see what angle would work best while seated -
I traced the cardboard template onto an aluminum sheet and cut out the dash. It took some time to file & smooth the edges.
Then I then made an aluminum mount (bent in the vise) to velcro the GPS to. I cut a notch for the power cord -
The I removed the mounts, drilled holes to mount the dash to, and countersunk the holes in the dash (the screws need to be flush with the dash so that a smooth surface is available for velcro mounting). I also secured the GPS mount plate to the dash. All hardware is stainless steel-
Then I painted it flat black and added the velcro to mount the GPS and radar detector. I mounted the radar detector on the left side at first but decided to move it to the right due to the power cord location on the unit -
Then I had to hard wire the GPS and the radar detector.
The Garmin 205 GPS requires a 5 volt power supply, and they normally achieve this by way of a small circuit inside the cigarette lighter power cord. So I ordered a cigarette lighter adapter cord off of eBay for $5.00 shipped (vs a "Hardwire cord" for $20) and used it.
What I had to do was to remove the circuit from the cigarette lighter housing and waterproof it. I did this using a hot glue gun, and then I wrapped it all in electrical tape.
The radar detector didn't have this requirement, though there was a resistor inside the cig lighter adapter (12v feed).
I found this pin in this connector had a switched 12 volt supply available (I spliced into the lower right wire) that I used as my 12v power supply (it's a lighting circuit).
For those that don't know what "switched hot" is, that means that 12 volts will only be available when the key is in the ON position.
here is a view of the dash with the units mounted, cables installed - I used rubber grommets to protect the cables) -
Here are a few pics of the completed project -
I also ordered a GlareStomper GPS shade to kill the glare on the Garmin.