Vehicle Armoring by Exec Armor

Standard armoring builds take between 10 and 16 weeks from contract signing to delivery. The first two weeks cover engineering, CAD design and parts ordering. Weeks three through twelve are dedicated to teardown, ballistic-steel fabrication, transparent-armor installation, suspension and brake upgrades, electrical re-wiring, interior re-trim and final assembly. The last two to four weeks cover road testing, ballistic validation, final QA inspections and logistics.

Complex builds — limousine conversions with custom interiors, specialty vehicles with mission-specific equipment, or BR7 builds with full underbody blast protection — can extend to 20 weeks. Conversely, our pre-built stock vehicles (Cadillac Escalade, Lexus LX 600 and Ford Transit Van) are ready for immediate delivery in two to three weeks once customs and shipping are arranged.

If you have a hard deadline, tell us early. We keep a small queue of priority production slots reserved for clients with mission-critical timelines. The most-common deadline-driven request is "before the rainy season begins in my country" or "before my contract security firm rotates teams" — both of which we routinely accommodate.

The single biggest source of delay in armoring builds is client-side change requests during the build. Once engineering is locked, change orders extend the timeline by an average of two weeks per major change. Our specialists will work hard to lock the spec correctly at the start, so change orders during the build aren’t needed.

Both options work. We armor client-supplied vehicles routinely — they account for roughly 30 to 40 percent of our annual builds. The client provides the vehicle (either drives it to Vaughan or has it shipped); we provide the armoring and any associated mechanical upgrades. This option is typically chosen by clients who already own the vehicle they want armored, or who have a specific relationship with a dealership and want to retain that relationship.

The alternative is for us to source the base vehicle on your behalf. Most of our international clients choose this option, because we have established relationships with major manufacturer dealer networks and can source vehicles at competitive prices, then ship the finished armored vehicle to your destination as a single integrated logistics chain. We don’t mark up base vehicles — what you pay for the base car is what we pay, with delivery and customs added at cost.

For client-supplied vehicles, we inspect the vehicle at intake and confirm it’s suitable for armoring. The vehicle must be in good mechanical condition, less than five years old (or seven for premium platforms with documented service history), free of accident damage to the body cell, and have clean title in your name. The intake inspection is included in your quote at no charge.

The protection-level decision is the most important single choice in your armoring build, and we walk every client through it carefully during the free consultation. The factors we consider: your operational environment (where will the vehicle live and travel), threat profile (what attacks are realistically possible), the local arms availability in your operating regions (handguns only? rifles? AP ammunition? IEDs?), your routes and routines (predictable routes increase risk), and your operational security practices (drivers, security teams, etc.).

For most low-threat environments — typical North American cities, major European capitals, most major Asian and Latin American cities — BR4 protection is sufficient. BR4 stops handgun ammunition up to .44 Magnum and protects against opportunistic carjacking and street-crime threats. Most family vehicles in low-threat environments are armored to BR4.

For moderate-threat environments — emerging-market cities with active organised crime, certain Latin American and African capitals, regions with periodic civil unrest — BR6 is the right level. BR6 stops 7.62×51mm NATO ball ammunition (the round fired by AK-47, FN FAL, M14, hunting rifles, etc.) and is the most-common civilian armoring standard worldwide.

For high-threat environments — active-conflict regions, principals targeted by organised crime or politically-motivated groups, diplomatic principals in high-risk postings — BR7 is appropriate. BR7 stops 7.62×51mm armor-piercing ammunition and is the highest civilian-armoring level. The weight penalty is significant; we discuss the trade-off carefully before recommending BR7.