That sounds like a good idea sigarms, and may be something that could pay off for him at night. My Dad could supervise the electrical hookups, he's very sharp with that stuff having retired from aviation electronics. If the available kits are well-made and durable in rain and normal highway road contamination, that would be a fun project for me to learn more about basic auto electrical.

If you see any kits like that please let me know. I'll start researching it. My guess is there probably are good kits out there, as well developed as the truck accessory market is.

I have ordered and installed a few sets of aftermarket running boards over the years with the last set being only about 1.5 years ago on my wife's then '22 Santa Cruz. They, the brand Bamboli, don't mount the same as factory but installed just fine anyway. At the time, very few companies made them but more came out.

The downside about buying just the running boards/steps used/second hand is that some manufacturers don't sell the install kits. You might get a great deal on the running boards but if you can't get the special nuts/bolts, you might have an issue.