i hear all these guys asking about how the paint is after 1 year.. well, my truck doesn't have 1000 miles on it, and ive already had it up in the snow and put a gouge ALL the way down the passenger side, and broke the running board off on a tree lying in the road..(oh well, didn't like the dang things anyway...)

 

I feel your pain, i to had paint issurs on my factory ordered truck from the get go. Long story, (posted somewhere else in these forums), but im happy with my paint now.

The ford factory running boards are ugly, and you will be able to find much nicer ones everywhere else.
Later Trev

 

Running boards look terrible IMO, the tree did you a favor.

 

I'm not a running board fan, but nurf bars might protect the rocker panels from tree damage, if you high center on something. Then again you might high center earlier with the lack of ground clearance

 

Some of us have to have runing boards to get into our dary trucks. My door glass opening at the rear is 4" higher than the roof of a Cavalier (and it is stock).

 

The tube steps do help getting in, more importantly they stop anyone from dinging my doors.

 

I never even thought about that..thats a good point.