Well, I finally bit the bullet & ordered a pair of the step brackets from Bronco Graveyard to replace my rusted stockers. Overall, I'm pretty happy with them ,they appear to be well made & sturdy but I did have to file a couple of the upper mounting holes a little bit to get them to line up.
Not a huge deal but for the price they ought to fit 100%!
Ford Bronco & F-Series Truck Running Board Support Bars-Broncograveyard.com


old vs new

 

Super cool!
Reasonable, as they are brand new.
If they were 200 less in price, they'd probably sell twice as many.
I'm 'still' in the process of making mine, $300 in parts and tools, no time, not made, still no steps on truck.

Like to see a pic once your steps are on.

 

Yeah it was close to $600 with tax & shipping.
Wouldn't have done it but my better half has a really tough time getting in the truck without them.

 

Did they pay for half?
just kidding, lol.

 

And why when she comes with me in the truck I bring a little folding stool.
Once in it folds flat and I put it under her feet. She can get out with out the step stool.

BTW I have a 81 F100 and they never had running boards from the factory like yours.
I have seen ones like yours installed on the 80's trucks and dont look to bad but between the boards & brackets the folding stool is not all that bad.
Dave ----

 

Well, an update 2 1/2 years later. These very expensive step brackets have developed significant flaky rust
I took them off, wire brushed them, and shot some epoxy paint on them but I doubt they're going to last as long as the stock ones did.
BTW I live in a very dry climate in eastern Colorado where rust isn't a big problem.

 

My factory step brackets have rusted through - and my truck was from Florida!!! No rust anywhere on the truck, it is just that the factory tubular brackets fill with dist/dirt/road schmutz, and that stays wet/damp -- perfect environment for RUST. The factory steps look nice and all, but don't drop low enough for my short/heavy wife to get into the truck. I'm afraid that it'll give way when I step into the truck, and break those expensive/desirable factory fiberglass steps. $500 for these re-pop brackets? I was going to bend up my own for my '95's factory steps, but might consider replacing the factory steps entirely.

I had 4" drop full-length one-piece boards in my previous '97 ext cab shortbed. I miss the ability to step on the running boards to access the whatever is in the front of the bed... BTW, the ext cab longbed would need 120" boards.

I had made my own brackets for the '97s boards because the supplied brackets looked flimsy. I used 1-1/4" galvanized angle iron and 1" flat strap, the angle bolted to the frame and the horizontal members that used the captive bolts on the extrusion slots to bolt the boards down, the strap was used for the hypotenuse, bolted to the angle iron on both legs...I used two such brackets per side. One under where I'd step on the board when climbing into the cab, and the other at the cab/bed juncture. The ends of the boards were supported by the vertical splash-shields that bolted to the wheel arches front and rear... My homemade brackets were on the '97 through 20+ Cleveland winters, and hadn't even started to rust when I sold that truck three years ago!