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Thought I'd do a little mucking about with the bike while I was home on R&R - removed my freak kit, chopped up the battery tray a bit and fabbed a bracket to relocate it, and left all the side covers off. Gives a bit of an old-school look, and yes I got the idea off here
Also gave my dash a couple coats of matte black - got really tired of being blinded by the Texas sun off the chrome in front of my face, wasn't sure how it would turn out but it looks pretty good. Here's a couple pics:

Look'n good... That's how it starts, a little here, a little bit there, before you know it you have a full on custom. Enjoy your R&R

Thanks much. I've been getting "The Horse" in care packages, so while I'm over here not riding, I'm making a list of stuff to work on. New bars are next, then something with the turn signals, and a triangle headlight. I can't go too crazy on it cause I have to keep it set up for two-up riding. So that's why I'm planning a ground-up chopper build with a 70's motor
Anyway when I get home and do more, I'll post more pics.

Love the dash in black

Looking good! Thank you for your service to our country! Stay safe.

A few other modifications lately...put on some chrome flame grips from the swap meet yesterday;


they match my flame theme that I have going...the peg-hangers,

..and bags


And my new custom choke knob!

It's a Zeigen Bock bottlecap; outline of Texas in colors that perfectly match the tank

In a fit of boredom during my month of leave after returning from Iraq (during which I couldn't ride because Ft Hood requires a stupid 2-hour motorcycle refresher course before I'm allowed to even get on the bike), I redneck-engineered a custom beagle-sized dog-carrier to mount in place of the pillion seat. I'll do a whole separate post about that one..a tongue-in-cheek DIY.

Very cool, and I like the console in black. I'm getting ready to do the same to my console and speedo bucket.

How did you prep the plastic for paint?

Badly, since there are little chips in it already...LOL just being honest. It was more of an experiment (I usually do this stuff on the spur of the moment) than a finished product, but it worked better than I thought.
I just used some fine grit sandpaper I had lying around - I really need to redo it, and I'll use some extra fine grit next time, and take more time doing it - especially on the ridges and corners. The paint was regular rattlecan Krylon Camo flat black. It ended up matching the look of the stock switch housings, and the lack of glare is a huge relief.

Of course I removed it and popped out the tach opening cover and the idiot lights and the rubber mystery switch plugs before doing anything with it.

Oh and here's a crazy little cheapskate tech tip. The red stitching on my saddlebags (flames, above, 4th pic) faded out to a dirty pinkish white over time, and my genius wife sat down one day and painstakingly went over the stitching with....a freakin red sharpie! And it looks good as new, whattya know?

Try some rustoleum satin next time, mine held up for a few years before my first chip. I did sand it a little before paiting, but not too crazy. I still got a bubble in the paint that dont wanna chip, from spraying it down too much with gas.

Hell yeah she is!!!