BuddyPress.org

Not sure how to mark this topic resolved, but I’ve decided to go about this in another manner. I followed the BP model and have my admin bar acting in the capacity of a menu and deleted my primary menu. Is working out pretty well thus far. For anyone else that’s interested I

Removed “howdy, $name” just because to me it screams WP

function custom_adminbar_welcome() {
	global $wp_admin_bar;

		$name = wp_get_current_user()->display_name;
		$avatar = get_avatar( wp_get_current_user()->ID, 28 );
		$class = $class = empty( $avatar ) ? '' : 'with-avatar';

		$wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array(
                'id'    => 'my-account',
                'title' => __('') . $avatar,
				'class' => $class
			) 
		);
}
add_action( 'wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'custom_adminbar_welcome' );

Removed WP links and change logo

add_action( 'wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'custom_adminbar_welcome' );

function rebranding_wordpress_logo(){
        global $wp_admin_bar;
        //the following codes is to remove sub menu
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('about');            // Remove the about WordPress link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('wporg');            // Remove the WordPress.org link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('documentation');    // Remove the WordPress documentation link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('support-forums');   // Remove the support forums link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('feedback');         // Remove the feedback link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('site-name');        // Remove the site name menu
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('view-site');        // Remove the view site link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('updates');          // Remove the updates link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('comments');         // Remove the comments link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('new-content');      // Remove the content link
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('w3tc');             // If you use w3 total cache remove the performance link
 
        //and this is to change wordpress logo
        $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array(
            'id'    => 'wp-logo',
            'title' => '<img src="http://test.theblackxperience.com/darklogo45.png" />',
            'href'  => __(home_url()),
            'meta'  => array(
                'title' => __('eQubator'),
            ),
        ) );
        
}
add_action('wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'rebranding_wordpress_logo' );

Moved BP child menus up to make them primary menus

function make_parent_node( $wp_admin_bar ) {

if ( ! is_user_logged_in() ) {
		return false;
	}

	 $wp_admin_bar->add_node( array(
		'id'     => 'my-account-activity',     // id of the existing child node (New > Post)
		'title'  => '<span class="ab-icon"></span><span class="ab-item">'._x( '', '' ).'</span>', // alter the title of existing node
		'parent' => false,          // set parent to false to make it a top level (parent) node
	)); 
    $wp_admin_bar->add_node( array(
        'id'     => 'my-account-friends',     // id of the existing child node (New > Post)
		'title'  => '<span class="ab-icon"></span><span class="ab-item">'._x( '', '' ).'</span>', // alter the title of existing node
		'parent' => false,          // set parent to false to make it a top level (parent) node
	));    
    $wp_admin_bar->add_node( array(
        'id'     => 'my-account-messages',     // id of the existing child node (New > Post)
		'title'  => '<span class="ab-icon"></span><span class="ab-item">'._x( '', '' ).'</span>', // alter the title of existing node
		'parent' => false,          // set parent to false to make it a top level (parent) node
	));
   
	$wp_admin_bar->add_node( $args );
}
add_action( 'admin_bar_menu', 'make_parent_node', 999 );

Added CSS to turn the menu items into dashicons

#wp-admin-bar-my-account-friends .ab-icon:before{
	font-family: "dashicons" !important;
	content: "\f307" !important;
}
#wp-admin-bar-my-account-messages .ab-icon:before{
	font-family: "dashicons" !important;
	content: "\f466" !important;
}
#wp-admin-bar-my-account-activity .ab-icon:before{
	font-family: "dashicons" !important;
	content: "\f130" !important;
}

#wpadminbar .quicklinks li#wp-admin-bar-bp-notifications>a:before{
	font-family: "dashicons" !important;
	content: "\f319" !important;
}

Only problem I’m having now is that for some reason the logo has decided to move itself to the right, but that’s another question for another topic. But hope this helps someone else.