[Image above] Credit: Daniel Kulinksi; Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Do you stand behind your work? Would you literally stand behind it in the face of an assault rifle?

Armored vehicle outfitter Texas Armoring’s CEO Trent Kimball would. Actually he did. Several times.

If you haven’t already seen the videos, take a quick break to watch them here:

Credit: David Zambrano; YouTube

Call it brave. Call it stupid. Call it crazy.

But whatever your reaction to it is, the glass’s reaction to the shells of an AK-47 is more impressive.

The glass in those videos is bulletproof glass, a composition of layers of glass alternating with polycarbonate sheets, which gives the glass extra durability and the awesome ability to resist penetration by those bullets. You can even see that some of the bullets hit in the same area of the glass, attesting to the toughess that a little bit of plastic confers. (And the chances that some people are willing to take for a viral video.)

Texas Armoring is just one of a host of companies that are in the business of armoring vehicles for personal, professional, and military uses.

The armoring process is a pretty extensive protocol to overhaul OEM cars to make them incredibly secure against the worst of enemies. Texas Armoring’s process starts with an OEM car, strips it down to the bones, adds layers of protective materials—bulletproof glass, lightweight composites, high-hardened ballistic steel, ballistic nylon, Kevlar and aramid fibers, Lexan polycarbonate, and ballistic fiberglass throughout—and then puts it all back together again.

The result is a car that, despite its unassuming looks, can withstand a rather impressive onslaught. Money won’t buy happiness, but it sure can buy safety.

Author

April Gocha

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