I’m sitting here in front of a computer doing something I have not done in years. Not because I don’t want to, but it’s just that I don’t have the time anymore. But for this reason, I am making an exception. In fact I’m resurrecting this entire website for this. I could not be silent. It almost seemed like this had gone by unnoticed, and that just didn’t sit well with me. We lost a dear friend recently, not just a friend, but a leader, an icon and an endless source of energy and enthusiasm for the radio control hobby.
Jerry Justice , owner of the famed “Death Metal Garage” renowned chassis builder, designer and KCRC rock crawling club president left this mortal plane after a short battle with cancer on May 3rd 2025.
Jerry made a huge impact on the RC Crawling segment, specifically. He was an extremely talented and creative metal craftsman. His hand-built custom creations number in the thousands and are highly sought after and prized by their owners from all over the world. His creativity inspired countless others to enter the hobby and fabricate custom creations of their own. His loss to the hobby cannot be understated.
On a more personal note, Jerry ran our local Rock Crawling club KCRC. Losing him has placed a heavy burden on the club at large because though he was not a physically large man, he has huge shoes to fill. He had almost limitless energy when it came to running the club. The events were always well planned and executed smoothly. He not only launched local events like the always popular Goat Hill Scale Challenge, Night of the Goats , (Named for the Independence, Missouri goat farm in which the events took place) but ran national events like Crawlapalooza in Disney, Oklahoma as well. Jerry was easily one of the most recognizable faces in the RC Crawling hobby. His mischievous smile and one-of-a-kind laugh will be forever etched in my memory.
I would be remiss if I didn’t share some of Jerry’s work. He loved to bring his latest projects out to events to show them off. Not only that, he won national level builder awards over the years and his customers routinely placed his builds in contests all over. He was extremely respected in the segment. It would not be much of an advantage to be a website editor to not show off some of my favorite projects Jerry built over the years. I was always very fond of the “Cannibal” pictured below
I was so impressed with this piece that I also did a builder spotlight with Jerry going over the specifics of this rig. you can check that out here:
I just wanted to put this together to be a proper send-off for our friend and to share with the world the amazing talent that was lost. Jerry, here is to you my friend. You were truly a unique individual, and there will never be another one like you. You will be missed.
Below are several pictures I grabbed from off of the web and DMGs Facebook page for all to enjoy.
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