METALCLOAK VIDEO: MetalCloak's Rigs & Wrenches EP.3 – Ron Davis | Red Scorpion Fabworks & Offroad (Tampa, FL)
In this episode of MetalCloak's Rigs & Wrenches, the journey takes us to Tampa, Florida, where we visit Ron Davis, the founder of Red Scorpion Fabworks. Known across Florida as “The Gear Guy”. Ron shares his story of transforming weekend Jeep repairs into a thriving 15-year business. We get an exclusive tour of his 4,000 sq. ft. shop, see some incredible custom Jeep builds including a CJ7 resto-mod and a Comanche drift truck, and learn why MetalCloak products are a favorite among Jeep enthusiasts for their ease of installation, durability, and Cadillac-like ride quality. The episode also features a CTI event with customer walk-arounds and previews upcoming upgrades to RockSport BLACK shocks, all while sharing trail stories from iconic off-road destinations.
Complete Transcript with Time Stamps:
[00:14] Hey, everybody. I am down here in Tampa, Florida as part of my seventeen day trek around the state visiting jobbers, especially our gold and gold plus level dealers. So we're here for a CTI event. I've got Ron with Red Scorpion.
[00:27] Ron, how you doing? Doing pretty good, man. How are you? I'm doing doing great. Welcome to sunny Florida. I like it down here. It's a little humid but you know, it's not too bad. Skin feels great. So Red Scorpion, tell me a little bit about the shop. When did you start?
[00:39] We started out of our garage about fourteen years ago, fifteen years ago, something like that. We just started building axles. I bought a Jeep for the first time, and we broke everything and I had to learn how to fix it because there wasn't a lot of shops around when we started. And we started joining Jeep clubs, and then we started working on everyone's Jeeps on the weekends. And our house became a shop and we decided, you know what? We can make money off this. Why not open a real shop?
[01:05] Very cool. And now we've been going fifteen years. Wow. Let's go inside and take a look. See what's going on. What's the square footage? Four thousand. Four thousand, nice. Very nice. It's not one of the nicer shops you get. We're not into like, showrooms and all that. Only reason why, I need to focus on working on this stuff. I don't need a showroom.
[01:32] So you got two lifts? In here anyways. Two lifts. And we do about, I don't know, about thirty to forty Jeeps a month. Nice.
[01:39] And what's the major common theme with some of the repairs you do? You do full builds, repairs, regears? Fifty percent of it is regears. The rest are suspension, ball joints, steering. The usual stuff. We don't do electrical. We don't do motor work. But as I visited shops around the state, you know we talk about, "Hey, we're doing a CTI event here, CTI event here. We're going down to Tampa", and they're like, "Oh, yeah Ron. Everybody knows Ron." Everybody knows Ron for gears. I hear that. You're the gear guy in Florida. But you've got a good reputation so, congrats. I appreciate that, we try.
[02:13] So, Ron is one of our gold plus level installers. Kudos to you for really focusing on MetalCloak. We appreciate that. What is it that you really like about MetalCloak products?
[02:22] It's simple to put in. It's great product. You never have to rebuild any of the joints. I've seen Jeeps that I did ten years ago, and they still drive around, still driving like the day I put them in. I like it's super simple, and it's easy sell. So when a customer comes in and we're talking about lift kits, they ask all kinds. Honestly, ninety percent of time I take them outside, I put them in a Jeep, I say drive to the end of the road and come back. They're like, okay that's easy. It drives like a Cadillac. I feel like the MetalCloak drives like a Cadillac. And I think it's the easiest lift to sell.
[03:00] Any comebacks? You get people coming back with issues? With MetalCloak? No. We regularly hear people going forty, fifty, sixty thousand miles without touching them. Yeah. We don't put Zerk fittings in them because you don't really need to grease them. Well honestly, putting Zerk fittings in control arms and all that, seventy five percent of people never grease them. Yeah. Or they over grease them and then they blow out.
[03:22] So walk me around. Show me what you're working on. Alright. My Jeep, I just got the motor back last week, so we'll get that going for Jeep invasion. This is a '86 CJ7 that we did from ground zero. Has a LS in it. It's built to the nines. Everything's done on it.
[03:44] Electric CJ7. Oh, wow. I call it the golf cart. The blue one was a from the hurricane two years ago. She wanted it restored back to the way it was. It was her grandfather's, so we're redoing this. I am a big cannonball fanatic. Nice. So this is a Comanche that we're making it into a drift truck slash cannonball.
[04:07] As far as wheeling goes, it's different out here. So you got a lot of mud bogging. You got different stuff. But where do if you're gonna take a day and go wheeling somewhere, what do you do?
[04:14] Really it's, I think we got citrus. We got a place in Tavares. We really don't have much. Do you travel? Like, you load up for a week an go places? I go to Tennessee a lot. Nice. I'm from, Windrock areas. That's where my family is from. And my other shop is in, about an hour away in Morristown. So we just go up there and go wheeling. It's just easier.
[04:35] Very cool. Well, we appreciate what you do for us. I appreciate it as well. Keep up the good work. Obviously, if there's anything you ever need, you know where we're at. I appreciate it. We're gonna get a CTI trailer going here shortly. How many, people you expect coming out today? A lot. Fifty seventy. Cool. Alright, should be good for you. So thanks, Mike. Thanks, man.
[05:37] So Josh with Shoreline Off Road. Josh, you just got a JT right over here, built by Ron, right? Yep. So what four and a half? Yep, 4.5" Game-Changer.
[05:48] Alright, and you just took it for its first spin around the block. First spin, yeah. How'd it feel? Man, it was the flexibility, I could already feel it. I could feel like, the way it's gonna be able to tilt on the trails, and I can't wait check it out on the trails. I can't wait to see how it flexes out.
[06:00] We're about ready to check it out on the flex ramp too that you have, the trailer. Yeah, it's going up on the trailer in a minute. So, I'm gonna do a little walk around on this thing, but yeah, it looks really good. Yeah, it's a hell of a lift on there. It felt good.
[06:13] We do have some shocks getting changed out next week though. We upgraded to the Blacks. Oh sweet. So the Reds will be coming off here and we're gonna be putting some Blacks on there when they come in. So Reds are great shocks, they flex well, they ride good. When you get into a built rig on 40's, 42's like that, having that extra adjustability. Adjustable, is it one through eight? One through eight. One through eight and you get an extra half inch? Right? Yep.
[06:34] So we just launched a video last night yesterday on the internals of that entire shock. Yup I saw how you have it machined out and everything. I did a bunch of recon on it before I yeah. It's a really cool shock. I've got twenty five thousand miles on mine. I put them on over a year ago. I've been to Moab, Death Valley, Baja Mexico, Canada, wheeling everywhere, and they're just perfect.
[06:53] So we are gonna be out EJS this year coming up. Sweet. Yeah, we're in 2026. So we will be heading out there for this this year. I'll most likely be there. I've been there the past four or five years. I usually go out and I do a bunch of this stuff. Nice. But yeah, awesome. Congrats, welcome to the family. I appreciate it, man. Glad to be here. Yeah.
[07:46] Alrighty, folks. Well, thanks for coming out to the CTI event here at Red Scorpion in Tampa, Florida. Thanks for following along. We'll see you on the next episode of Rigs and Wrenches. I'm Mike. Have a great day.
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