Kevlar fabric - Bulletproof door panels?

Yup, it's late and I've gone down a rabbit hole.

Question - Anyone made their door panels bulletproof? I've seen sound deadening, but haven't seen anyone apply Kevlar material inside their doors. Is that a thing?

Saw a poor 5yr old kid in the news shot and killed on a highway in CA. Got me thinking about deterrents.

 

Great idea! Never thought of this

 

All of the NYPD cars have them, but they are glued to the outside of the 2 front doors.

 

Biggest deterrent to getting shot in a road rage incident is to slow down, let the other person pass or whatever, and not engage, but that ego check can be the hardest for some. Stop the bullets from coming your way in the first place and you'll survive every time.

Check out what they do for bulletproofing the presidential limo tho. Great ideas in there

 

You know that's not a Cadillac. It's a Chevrolet Suburban with a Cadillac shell.
AKA..... "The Beast"

 

I honestly don't recall much about it at all!

 

It would have to be thick, thinking 1/2” to 1”

 

I'd seen polo shirts for sale that claim to stop small arms fire. Was thinking If I added sound proofing I could use a fabric glue and coat the outside of the soundproofing with something thin like that?

I also agree with the comment about slowing down, was just thinking out loud about how to stop a stray projectile if I was gonna go in and sound proof. Not so much creating a "tank"

 

I've seen some videos on youtube about this. armored vehicles on youtube mainly. Cali has a lot of colorful characters. Road rage is not always the issue, but wanna be snipers on an overpass shooting at traffic.

 

I’ve never seen it done, I’ll stay tuned into the thread for if you get any more info on it

 

I have one of these in my school backpack I carry everyday.

0.25" thick and only 1.5 lbs. Mine is only rated IIIA but you can def go higher albeit more weight. A few of these panels mounted to the inside of the door maybe?

 

I mean you could just tape a punch of level 4 plates to the inside of your door that would get pretty pricey

 

Being around the Atlanta area…I’ve actually looked into doing this a few years back, when shit was going crazy (funny…now’days seems worse…but I digress).

imo it could be done for ‘most’ of the door panel, and not interfere with the window mechanisms, if you wanted to apply it inside the door…to the part that is actually the outer portion of the door.
you could apply it the the inside panel that the plastic door panel attaches to, but you would have to mod the plastic panel for fitment.
I’ve made my own spall protectors (for some steel plates) and some small plates with Kevlar.
So, when I was looking at this before,
I was looking at doing something inside the interior door panel. But I would have to take the door off to do what I had in mind, plus, mod the plastic door panel. I just didn’t have the time to undertake the project.

The challenge is getting the necessary weight applied to the epoxy/ Kevlar layers for it to cure and set…especially if you were trying to have the most coverage in one contiguous piece. Which to really do that imo, you’re going to need to take the door off the truck.

Another option would be either make/ source some soft armor and affix it to the door panel with epoxy/ construction adhesive. Of course that may be lesser coverage.

Also…Finding enough/ quality Kevlar can be tough and get pricey. If memory serves…depending on the weave/weight, you need 9-11 layers to stop most of your hand-gun rounds (9mm, 357, up to 45). That’s at 10 yds shooting the fabric. With it epoxy and the metal doors slowing some of the energy, I assess you could ‘lite’ armor the doors. Rifle rounds…you’ll need a different door.

Good luck with it! I’ll be interested to see what you decide.

 

Definitely a rabbit hole on that one.... If you're talking about situations where you're trying to prevent rifle fire (overpass sniper, etc.) you'll need to be at least level 3 armor; it will get heavy, and what about the glass if you don't do something w/it the glass becomes shrapnel and is also the most likely place that will be targeted on perpendicular shots (because that's where human silhouettes are seen).

Next question is what about the rear of the vehicle?? Shooting at a vehicle on the Fwy (from a perpendicular position to hit a door skin or side window) the vehicle is normally moving and much more difficult to hit w/o adequate training. A perpendicular scenario will most likely play out at a light or stop sign. Most shooters are going to wait for the vehicle to pass and then dump rounds into the rear of the vehicle where there is much less protection, so you'd need to consider armoring the bulkhead as well.

It's not cheap and you'll need to upgrade suspension to accommodate the extra weight, if it's being done right.

Check out the Devolro Tundra which would only set you back a mere $200k starting price on an armored Tundra (depending if you want blast protection or want to move up to levels 4, 5, or 6

https://coolmaterial.com/rides/devolro-diablo-armored-truck/

There's another company in Utah that does armored rigs, which might also give you some additional ideas...

https://www.armormax.com/location/utah/

Honestly speaking, if you want to provide a minimal 'bubble' of protection for a particular seat position, you can always buy a few breacher blankets and mount/wrap them over the bulkhead and skin areas of the doors; but again you're coverage is still limited and you'll be limited by the rating of the 'blanket'... This example is a 3A, so not rated for rifle fire, but it will give you an idea....

https://armsunlimited.com/battle-steel-level-3a-ballistic-blanket/

 

Homebrewed will preform better with some reinforcement and can be cut to shape:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxRJPVhuxh8
https://youtu.be/_7jiIQOgwtI

 

I think you would be better off getting bulletproof glass on all your windows. Most kids under 10 are going to be in a carseat or booster seat, which raises them up on the rear seat, plus a bullet has to go through the sheet metal, plus all the crap in the door, and then the plastic panel on the inside, so there is a decent chance that it will have its trajectory altered or all together lose steam before it gets to flesh. The glass however is almost no resistance and most of their vitals are going to be visible to the glass area. Just my opinion as a father of 2 that is becoming more and more cautious and negative towards the world after having kids and also likes to dive into rabbit holes.

This is a similar concept as what I have done in my house which is adding sheet metal to the back of the bedroom doors in case i have to shotgun some intruder. The way my upstairs is, I would be shooting toward the bedroom doors/stairs where my kids sleep. There is no way the shot is going to go through the door and the metal from the distance that I would do my blasting.

 

Doesn't help if you're caught between others raging and hit by a stray bullet

Have the company that made this suburban armor up the Tundra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_HSkUu5ImM

 

Glass is much more difficult. Thickness is a big factor in determining protection. There were a few films on the market that looked promising but nothing for the open market. Probably best to temporarily throw up panels if you expect danger. Also something like thick lexan can offer some protection but not level 3A.

 

Looks like it was one of a kind and they don't offer the service on their storefront from what I can tell.

Up-armoring a vehicle also means all the supporting re-enforced mods. For the 300K they priced the vehicle mods total at you are better off buying a purpose built vehicle off the shelf IMO.