Took off those dorky little running boards (1 Viewer)

[lx450landcruiser]

Ok I just took off the running boards and there's the two plastic pieces per side that attach to the body of the cruiser.
The front one is the one I'm concerned about. It screws to the bottom of the front fender flares with 3 screws. when I took it off and the running boards off the body looks kinds weird but if I leave them on then it looks even worse. What did you guys do? just leave them off? also I have the stock exhaust with the 2 catalytic converters but they hang down so low that with the running boards off all I see are those damn converters. Are all you guys running custom exhaust or what?
Should I look into after market exhaust and just weld it up close to the body with a heat wrap or try and modify the original stuff?

 

[CruisinGA]

Slee Sliders are your only option.

 

[MTNRAT]

I drove mine like that all the way from B.C. to Moab, where Christo kindly delivered a set of sliders to improve the look. .
Sean

 

[tiorio]

PM c-dan for a price on mud flaps that replace the black running board/fender caps if you can't afford the Slee Slider option right now. They look a lot better...

But not as good as Christo's sliders!

 

[IdahoDoug]

I took running boards off a Mitsubishi Montero/Pajero a few years ago, and purchased a pair of $12 semi truck mudflaps at a truck part place. They were huge, and easily allowed me to hand cut 4 mudflaps to replace the integrated running board mudflaps. Plus, I made them even tastier by running cables through them as an anti-sail measure and had the bright idea of putting an extra loop in the cables so I could pull them all the way up against the body for wheeling. Completely out of harm's way, plus the occasional light tap on the rockers sometimes (read: never when it was important) was padded by the rubber flaps.

IdahoDoug