Do you plan on keeping the rockers for future use? If not just give them a good tug, you may break some of the plactic clips on the rockers but you wont damage the car.
Just don't pry against the car.
Good luck,
Scott

 

After much tugging, twisting & some cursing I was able to get the rocker panels off. Many tabs were sacrificed There was a lot of dirt trapped in there. Perhaps an ancient artifact or two fell out

It cleaned up nicely though (love that GM paint)

Since the hardware was not individually marked I had to seperate the parts out to figure out what a "riv nut" was (upper right corner)

You insert these riv nuts into holes in the rocker. These will be the threaded holes that attach the brackets for the running boards to the rocker panel.

Installing the riv nuts using the supplied tool & a 15mm open end wrench (which I did not have. Had to borrow a bicycle tool from the neighbor) & a 10mm socket.

Here's what the installed riv nut looks like

And the finished look (I still have to wash it so no close-ups yet)

Overall this was one of the more difficult part installations for me. As others have noted, the second running board went on much quicker. I kinda like the look because the silver color matches the door handle, grill & rear bar color. But I think it would look better with a silver wheel. I may still remove them later & have them painted black. Any other opinions on the look??

 

I think with different wheels........

 

I agree. If you've got them, you could put the factory wheel covers on. That should give you a better idea of what it would look like with silver wheels

 

i agree, try the factory wheel covers since they're silver, and if you don't have them, go buy a couple cans of rust-oleum silver lol, paint the wheels, why not? cheaper than buying a new set of wheels right away. or if you've got the money, choose some new wheels! i actually rather like the 2-tone boards, looks pretty neat. might help if you could get the chrome mirror caps that match your handles, grill and beauty bar (either bright chrome or satin chrome, i can't tell what you have)

 

I have the factory covers but I'm not putting those back on. Painting the wheels silver is an idea but I like the black wheel look. I'll probably just have the running boards painted black sometime in the future. For now I just have to get used to extending my leg out past the boards when getting in & out of the car. Next project? I'll be looking for some rear splash guards.

 

looks good