Gotcha, thanks. I've had 2 different '54 1/2t pickups in the past, but this is my first panel.
Crawled under the truck to take a look. Someone hacksawed off the brackets(all 6 of 'em)evenly, right at what would have been the inside edge of the boards then fabricated some trim to sort of fill the gap between the front and rear fenders and hide the ends of the brackets. Never mind what I think of him.