Page 38 - Issue 44

Let's go back to when Justin was an
impressionable 8th grader. We all know
what kind of temptations are out there
for young teens, but Justin was lucky
enough to have a mentor in the way of
Ron Huffman Sr., who told Justin that if he
stayed out of trouble, he'd help him build a
hot rod someday.
Justin got older, stayed out of trouble
and sure enough, when he stumbled upon
a derelict '38 Ford pickup, Ron was there
to give him a hand. By now, Justin was
working insane hours at a sawmill, which
left him little time to work on his truck. But
what little time he did have was spent on
the truck, making progress as he went. As
rough as those hours were, they were just
what he needed to learn metal fabrication,
welding, and general mechanical skills
that would come in handy once he had
more time to spend on the truck. In fact,
the build process had already caught the
eye of Editor Jerry via social media. Jerry
contacted Justin about possibly doing a
feature on it once it was completed.
Everything in Justin's life came to a
screeching halt on August 23, 2015 as he
was getting his family ready for an outing.
Justin and his family are big into off-road
motorcycles and every time they go out,
they wear full protective gear head to
toe. However, as he was performing the
simple act of riding his bike (without a
helmet) from the front yard to the back,
he had a medical episode, most likely a
stroke. He went down hard, landing on his
unprotected head. He sustained fi ve skull
fractures, including one that ran from his
eye socket to the base of his skull. He spent
two days on life support in an induced
coma. After two weeks, he was "still not
right in the head", but checked himself out
of the hospital anyway.
His equilibrium was cut in half, and both
his long-term and short-term memory were
shot. He had to learn to walk and talk all
over again. "People were coming up to me...
hugging me and crying, and I had no idea
who they were", recalls Justin. He became

38 RAT ROD MAGAZINE ISSUE FORTY-FOUR

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