DIY Side Step (Running Boards)

Morning ladies and gentlemen. I have been wanting another set of running boards for my truck. The ones I currently have I do not like. I have browsed the internet for about a week now and have come across a few styles that I like. The more I look at them the more difficult it becomes for me to drop that amount of money into something I know I can build myself. I think I'm pretty content with what I have now and just figured I would share it on here and post updates as I progress with this. I will possibly still make a few minor changes but this is the design I have right now. I want the main rail to be snugged up pretty close to the body of the truck and just have the steps extend out and down far enough to comfortably step onto. Not 100% sure if I'm going to do the Tacoma logo in the middle or not, I just kinda put that on there to see how it looked. Its a work in progress

 

I was able to cut out one of the mount brackets just to check for clearance. Here’s how they came out. After looking them over I decided to remove the rear cutout.

 

Nice! I always thought about making the steps spring loaded in the up position. Dunno if it'd work though.

 

They look good. My only concern would be the clearance. IT seems like if you happen to clip something with one of the drop down steps, there is not much room for the bar/brackets to move before hitting/damaging the rocker panel