A friend said he saw an article/video online walking through the process of removing the plastic underdoor panels and replacing them with something else. Anyone know where I can find that? Gotta get rid of these things. Thanks.

Do you mean the plastic rockerpanel covers?

Yep. Those evil little bas***ds that collect rust. I've got the plastic off, but what to do with the brackets? I think, maybe, I'll go with a set of diamond plate covers, but I assume one removes the brackets first.

you can use a spot weld drill to get them off or grind the heads of the spot welds down. Just be careful not to grind into the rocker itself.

You can then paint the rocker with rocker guard or paint it body color. For protection I would mount a bar under the rocker or cut the rocker out and replace it with a square tube.

square tube? That sounds interesting.. Have any pictures?  What size square tube?

Try:

http://www.izook.com/tech/samurai/body/ncorockers/ncorockers.htm

in Izook.com's tech section.

It's an illustrated  tutorial for installing replacement Calmini diamondplate rockerpanels that shows how to remove the underlying metal brackets.

Do you have a Sami or Trakick?

The article is for a Sami.

Some where on this sight rocker gards were discussed (for a Trackick).  Someone cut cut out the rockers and replaced them with square tubing welded to where the rockers used to be.  Turned out quite well.

I found a couple nice threads, but don't know how to post them?

Go up to the "search button"  and type in "rocker gards" and they will come up.