99 Marlin Crawler prerunner farm truck build

So this we be a 1st for me. Going to try to put together some kind of build thread on my Tacoma. I got the truck June 6th 2017 on a take it for the weekend deal and let me know deal from work. Before I took ownership of the truck it had lived 460*** + miles as everything from a farm truck that never left the field to a neglected shop run around rig for Marlin Crawler. I dont know much about it before it was owned by an old coworker from MC. He had plans of doing a SAS with 1 tons and an Atlas transfer case but lost interest and ended up selling the truck to MC with plans of building it into a crawler for Marlin to drive. The shop owned the truck for a few years and did nothing with it but pick up parts till it eventually was just parked. I was eventually offered the truck for a good price after spending several months looking for a 3.4 extra cab 4x4 with nothing checking all the boxes and being in my price range.

The 1st time I used the truck was the week of my wedding to make a bunch of trips up to the Shaver CA where we had our wedding. Ill start out with a picture of how loaded down the truck was, I felt like I was trying to make a Beverly Hillbilly intro but the truck took it like a champ.

 

1st

 

After the week and a half that I had the truck for my wedding I was sold on it and didn't want to give it back. It had more power than my 2.2 GM Subaru and the AC was ice cold. Once we worked out a deal I drove the truck for several months without doing a thing to it besides an oil change. I got the truck with the cab smashed in pretty bad behind the pass side door, It really bugged be so I did a bit of body work to make it look a little better but ended up running into rain that cut my weekend project short. Ive never gone back and finished it so the cab is still half fixed and looks pretty bad. I'm lucky enough to live pretty close to some very pretty lakes with a cool drive up to them so before long I did a solo trip up to Courtright. I stopped along the way and hit a few cool spots and took some pictures. I had not owned a truck for the last 6 or so years so it was fun getting used to the way the truck drove and how different it was to my Subarus. Pictures are from along the way at a sequoia grove and a vista point then some pics from the lake.

 

I had a starting issue that would hit me on and off from day one so I changed out my crank and cam sensors but the plug de pined on me when I unplugged it so a simple job turned into a big deal. I was able to get the harness from Mike @ Off Road Solutions so once that was here i just scabbed the harness back together. I still have the long crank stat to this day even with a fresh motor and fresh factory starter.....

 

Next thing with the truck was when I went to Sierra Trek to work our booth, along the way I missed one of my turns and ended up coming in from the wrong side, It made for an interesting story because gps took me to a washed out bridge after I was already at the bottom of a long loose rock hill that I had no hope of making it back up in my street tire 2wd truck. In the end I made it to camp 6 or so hours late. Ended up being a good weekend and I fallowed another MC employee out the easy way and was back on paved road in less than 30 min. On the way home I went to San Fransisco for a few hours and ended up on the steepest road Ive ever driven.

 

After that I just used the truck as a DD till Dave from MC and I found a weekend to use the shop and install a 3inch All Pro kit from before they had all the issues and ended up selling out. At the same time we did all the front bushings and replaced everything in the front end of the truck while also installing locking hubs for when the 4x4 conversion was done. I was also lucky enough to pick up Big Mikes factory trd wheels and some 33 10.50s to go with the 3 inch lift.

 

Keep it coming b

 

Right after doing all the restoration and suspension work I took the truck to Carmel CA with my wife the truck did great!

 

The truck was now driving good and was looking good.... or so I thought it stayed this way for about 6 months or so I honestly cant remember. But along the way it took me to KOH where I worked our booth for half a week. The creeper camper went back on so id have a place to sleep in the heavy wind that can happen.

 

The truck got me everyplace I needed for a long time. I went to the off road expo and had a great time seeing all kinds of cool stuff but the week after I got back to Fresno everything changed. I was on lunch when my temp gauge wet to full hot. I pulled over right away but it was too late the motor was done. I wouldn't know what caused it for a few months but it ended up being a cracked head, when I checked the rad it was dry... SO this is when the fun stuff stated. Marlin built me a 3.4 and along the way he did everything he could to open up the restrictions along the way. While he worked on a motor for me MC built me a 4.7 Taco Box. I already had an ARB in the rear end with 4.88 Marlin Crawler Ninja gears so Rocky built me a matching 4.88 front diff with a spartan locker for the front. Once the motor was done Marlin did the harness work to swap me to a 4x4 auto transmission. When everything was coming together I wanted to switch to 35s so some major cutting was also done to my fenders and fire wall.

 

I drove the truck for a few weeks to let the rings seat then went up to Courtright with my dad to do a day of fishing, the place we fished is along the start of one of my local trails so I did a little flexing to see how it tucked everything after all the cutting that was done.

 

I had some of the new Marlin Crawler sliders I've wanted to put on so I did that 2 weeks ago.

 

I still have more supports to add but that didn't stop the sliders from working flawless over last weekend when I did a few trails with a coworker. This was my 1st time really testing the truck and it walked up everything I pointed it at. Ill have to get used to the truck because I was wimping out long before my truck needed to stop.

 

so now were up to today.... Ill post a little behind the scenes, If I've got time time this weekend I'll be test fitting the new Marlin Crawler rear bumper I'm very happy with how it looks!

 

When are you off again? I'm going to do the rear bumper and would love a hand

 

Monday maybe?

 

I'll let you know

 

ok sounds good

 

Well I didn't have time to get the rear bumper mounted this weekend, ended up have a birthday party on Saturday and a gender reveal party on Sunday. Made for a fun weekend but left me with pretty much no time to work on my truck. I'm hoping @azhiaziam still has time to help me after work today. Ill update with pictures when I have some.

 

Lookin good, looks like some of that bondo work fell off the cab.