How To Bulletproof A Car: Step By Step Guide

Bulletproof cars offer more protection than a regular car. These days, you need more than a safety beat, a few airbags, adaptive cruise control etc to protect yourself on the road. You might want to bulletproof your car if you are going on a dangerous trip, or you live in a notorious environment filled with murder, vandalism, or robbery. Or simply because you just want to have peace of mind and protect yourself and your family. Whatever the reason, anyone can have their vehicles bulletproof- either civilian or military.

The demand for bulletproof vehicles has increased in recent times. Different automakers like Mercedes-Benz, Ford etc have released armoured versions of their models. If you are curious about how a car is made bulletproof, you will find answers in this article as carmart.ng shows the step by step process of doing that.

Materials Needed To Make A Car Bulletproof

After bulletproofing a car, it’s usually considerably heavier than it used to be. This is because of the armoured materials used. The major materials used to make a car bulletproof includes;

• Armormax: A fabric consisting of ballistic nylon, steel, polymer, and armored glass.

• Ballistic glass: A specialized bulletproof to withstand greater compression and pressure when bullets would hit the car.

• Polymer plastic: Usually used as an inner layer to make the glass stronger and bulletproof.

Step By Step To Bulletproof A Car

Doors

To begin the process, all the components of the car’s body must be removed. These include components like interior trims, wiring, carpets, seats etc. Doing this makes it easy to cut open the doors and other cavities such as the pillars to stuff armoured materials into the void. Different levels of protection can be added to the doors and pillars. It could be welded with steel plates, a combination of ballistic nylon and Kevlar (similar to the material in bulletproof vests), or both. When this is done, the door gets heavy and requires that a third hinge be added to bear the weight.

Body And Interior

The body and interior of the car must be appropriately armoured to give protection to the passengers within. Steel plates can be added to the firewall and rear bulkhead, then the floor and ceiling of the car are lined with ballistic fabrics. The shock bumpers can be reinforced to withstand major impact such as bashing through an improvised roadblock without damaging the radiator. More effective shock absorbers, which can help to absorb energy during an accident or combat can be added too.

Glass (Window And Windshield)

Usually, glass is designed to be transparent and give minimal protection from sunlight. However, in bulletproof cars, the glass is referred to as “transparent armour”. Bulletproof glass is made of a sandwich of polycarbonate (a type of plastic) and leaded glass. The thinnest window glass bulletproof option of 0.8 inches, will stop subsonic rounds such as those from the popular 9mm handgun, while the thickest window glass bulletproof of 2.0 inches, should weaken the impact of a single shot from a high-powered .30-06 rifle.

Tyre

Most often in an attack, the first weak point your enemy may target are the tires. This is why tires are of high priority in making a car bulletproof. The tires must be bolstered enough so that they can speed for a good while from the danger scene before halting. Bigger and more armoured cars can use an onboard tire pressure control and sealing system while the smaller bulletproof ars can rely on a composite flat run tire as the regular ones cannot handle gunshots.

Suspension And Chassis

Depending on the level of protection given to a car, it is expected that the chassis and possibly, the drivetrain be modified. It is said that even the slightest of armouring for a sedan adds extra 500 pounds while the greatest level of protection can add about 1400 pounds to the vehicle. If the suspension and engine are left unmodified, it’s possible the vehicle will lack energy and performance on the road. Generally, the chassis and drivetrain can be modified by raising the spring rates and damping as well as adding the air slots. That could essentially increase the drivability of the car.

Engine

Most vehicle models have engines that can withstand additional weights which come with armouring. Notwithstanding, after all, is said and done with bulletproofing your car, endeavour to check if your engine can handle it. If your car uses a small engine with little horsepower; you can consider increasing this so that your armoured car can last longer and perform better.

CONCLUSION

Bulletproofing a car is usually done by professionals and not on a DIY scheme. If you want to bulletproof your car, simply take it to any reputable car armouring company.