First of all, lets take a moment to praise our Lord God for this wonderful world – and for all of bountiful blessings that we have. We need to look no further than what is happening in India to be reminded to get down on our knees and pray. I have personally heard from medical doctors on the ground that talk about how those in the COVID wards – and field hospitals are pulling their O2 masks off to be able to die so that their families will not go bankrupt from the hospital bill. We are awash in blessings – and we must be thankful and grateful to the Lord for them every day.
Our collective old friend Todd Gray, has some serious steel bullet-resistant shutters on his windows – and an armored door on his house. In JWR’s novel Patriots, the benefit of his shutters was beautifully illustrated. Todd and his wife Mary had a true fighting position.
We haven’t reached full Crunch yet. But people domestically here in these U.S. of A. are being terrified regularly by the likes of BLM and (anti)FA.
The ponytailed black-clad jack-booted thug’s favorite modus operandi seems to be Kristallnacht – the night of the broken glass. Store windows, home windows and car windows…. It must be a good time to own a glass repair business.
The Gray family pulled shut and fastened their shutters when Colonel Cooper called it “full red” during The Crunch.
For those of us who don’t have those shutters or want an intermediatory step – there is a fantastic prep – an invisible prep – it isn’t too expensive – I fortified every window on the ground floor of my house for about 400 dollars – and I have a lot of windows and glass doors.
3M window security film is really really strong. It can be shot through a dozen times and even then, it takes a minute or three to bust through with a full-strength swing of a baseball bat or crowbar. (That’s 10 minutes in soy-powered antifa strength for those wondering the conversion factor).
3M isn’t the only game in town and a few other very good products exist.
This film usually goes on the inside pane of glass – you can DIY apply it, or pay a bunch more for a installer to do the work. You can also apply another layer on the outside of the glass if you want more protection (I eventually did both).
My journey to relaxing and entering a condition green (which is quite good for your mental health) from time to time at home began with knowing that someone cannot just bust open and walk through my glass doors or windows. My first foray into this film, I paid a security film company about $1,500 to install 4mil 3M security film on most of my ground floor windows. They did a okay job…. Some small bubbles where they got dust trapped between the glass and the film persist to this day on their work. Not too bad – but not what I expected from a pro firm. I since learned that you can DIY the same amount of glass for about 300-400 dollars.
I did a ton of other windows myself and did better than they did – and I used thicker film as well. It pays to care.
I purchased a large quantity of 8mil (very thick) security film
I brought mine on the anti-free speech site, Amazon. Sorry – it was about two years ago.
After watching some videos on how to best do this I got it right on the first try. I wound up installing this film on many of the windows on the OUTSIDE as well. I didn’t put film on the outside part of my windows on the South face of my house because I was worried the sun would degrade the film over time. I am not sure if this would happen or not – but our south face sun is strong and long.
To install:
Get the window super clean and have a helper for the outside installs since you have to get it on fast to prevent dust from becoming trapped– do it on a windless day – otherwise there will be dust trapped between the film and the glass leading to small bubbles. Not the worst thing in the world – but quality is nice.
To prep the glass, you need to scrape the entire glass surface with a flat razor blade to be sure there is nothing at all on the glass before applying. Word of note – if you don’t prep the glass perfectly – don’t bother applying – it will be junk. Then use Windex or similar several times until you are sure it is perfectly clear and clean.
Then use a spray bottle filled with water and about 6 small drops of baby shampoo.
Spray down the window thoroughly until it is just about to over bead up and run.
Then remove the protective film on the sticky side of the film – then spray down the film a lot too. Don’t be shy – you need the moisture to work the film.
I pre-cut the film to approximate size before applying to make it easier on me.
Use a stiff pusher (usually included with the film) to push all the water and bubbles out.
Use a super sharp brand new razor blade to trim the film to a perfect fit.
The pro installers leave a 1/8th inch space around the edge to make it easier to install – but I went right to the edge – which is harder – but stronger and nicer looking, I think.
It is good exercise to work all of the soapy water out from behind the film after applying.
You will see bubbles- the big ones must be pushed out.
The small ones will eventually go away – but try and push them all out – use the spray on the outside of the film to lubricate your pusher – but sure not to scratch the film with a nicked or unlubricated pusher.
The tiny bubbles WILL eventually go away – if your windows get sun, they will go away faster – a week or two. On the north facing panes, it could take up to a month. Don’t despair.
I actually used a sewing needle to pop a tiny hole in a bubble that was taking a long time to go away, and then I pushed the water out. Worked perfectly.
Long term review
I absolutely love it – totally clear – super good feeling of security – not very expensive – will absolutely slow an intruder down giving you time to react and drive them off.
Not at all bullet-resistant, FYI.
Make sure you use some high-quality caulk to seal the edges of the film to the window frame after a month or two – wait that amount of time to be sure things are copesetic. This caulk will keep the bad guys from kicking the glass out as a whole. 3M makes an adhesive that is designed for adhering the window film to the window frame that is stronger than caulk – but it’s gray or white or black – no clear version offered – and so we compromised on performance to get clear since the frame of our windows is wood and the 3M caulk was ugly.
I did test the strength of this by using an extra piece of film and applying clear silicone caulk to it and then to some wood to simulate my window frames. Very very strong… I couldn’t pull it off. I did manage to hammer it off with some work.
It Only Buys You Some Time
This approach buys you time – from 1-3 minutes is my guess.
There are lots of videos on the surveillance platform, youtube showing demonstrations of effectiveness.
I recommend 8mm – harder to work on – but worth it in the long run. I can’t imagine working with the 12mil film that I saw advertised – I advise if you want to try that start with a single roll and see how it goes.
Last summer when we had the privilege of watching our great nation’s highways and local roads taken over by al-Qaida, (oh wait, it was a different terror organization) and countless drivers assaulted with their windows being smashed and all sorts of assault and battery taking place, I decided to try the film on my truck windows. Those windows all have some curve to them so it was more challenging. They were, however, much smaller – so that offset some of the difficulty.
Ideally, you would remove the door panel, remove the glass from the door and apply the film. Ken Layton would have taken this approach on the Power Wagon. I’ve got a modern year vehicle, and removal of the door panel is a major pain – so I opted for applying on the outside of the window, while still intact.
I did every window and they all went well – the rear was by far the hardest. I would perhaps recommend 4mil film for the rear – as a heat gun is needed to shrink the film to fit the double curve – there is both a horizontal and vertical curve on the rear liftgate window.
That rear window took me two tries. I recommend looking up “auto glass window film shrinking” or some such on the video streaming channels – there are some real masters out there. I copied the techniques they showed – but their film is 1mil or 2mil – and tinting – it is much harder with 8mil security film.
I was worried it would get scratched up – but so far so good. I’m sure that years on it will get scratched – but 1 year almost – and I notice basically no problems at all.
If you look up spark plug ceramic being thrown at auto glass – you will see the fragility of tempered auto windows.
Note – some modern cars come with “laminated glass” which is basically what I was replicating…. If your vehicle has laminated glass you might not need to do this – unless you want a bit more protection on top.
YouTube has some videos of people really abusing an auto window that has the treatment that I did to mine – it’s impressive… Include someone using a AR platform with a soda can barrel – shooting blanks with 12 oz cans down the barrel – at 10 feet on the car window which stayed intact over multiple hits. Impressive.
My hope is that this gives me options to keep my cool and absorb the damage from the mobs without having to engage them in a legal climate that gives the victims of these mobs zero legal rights.
If they break your windows and are then in your vehicle you have no choice but to engage. This film may give you options. It might also make smash and grab thieves pause? I’m not sure how they would react to a window that doesn’t break easily.
One downside might be the inability to just easily break the window and get out of your vehicle in an accident, rollover or immersion – but this is going away as-is with modern laminated glass – and even the super safety conscious car companies like Volvo are putting in laminated glass – so I figured that they did the calculations of safety risk/benefit.
I didn’t put it on my windshield since all auto windshields are laminated and have been for a long time – and I didn’t want the constant wiper action to scratch the film and have it become hazy. I could put it on the inside for another protection layer – but since it’s a quite concave angle – I think it would be very very hard.
If anyone is getting new windows in their vehicle, I encourage you to ask your glass dealer about getting laminated glass instead of just plain tempered.
I also drive a vehicle that is frequently converted to an armored vehicle and so true ballistic glass is available – but I had a hard time finding it at a “good” price. Does anyone have a recommendation?
If you have any vehicle that is used by police or other law enforcement – you may be able to find ballistic glass replacements for your vehicle. Glass that will stop rifle rounds is very thick and requires a lot of door modifications – but pistol caliber-rated glass can be installed without too much modification, generally.
Stand up politically to tyranny– pray on smart ways to restore the American way – and love your family.
“But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.”
An Aside on Political Violence
This past summer watching James’ prescient descriptions of how a collapse would play out unfold, I gained some second-hand knowledge on most peaceful riots, burnings and beatings carried out by Marxist communist-fascists terror organizations of BLM and Antifa.
Seeing the violence and destruction of the immoral mobs, the benefit of the Gray family’s shutters was amplified in my own preparedness analysis.
I consulted my wife to see if she would have the same enthusiasm and support for armored shutters as Mary Gray did.
She did not – and my particular situation is greatly complicated by the fact that we have many many windows in my house – and they are very large (some 8 feet plus) to take advantage of our south-facing aspect – it is a passive solar house. (An OPSEC giveaway)
Watching the mobs I knew that I wanted to achieve a delay or maybe even prevention of intrusion into my castle.
The door fortification was already achieved with much larger strike plates and long 4 inch construction screws on both the hinges and the deadbolt. In times of heightened risk I also had dead bars that I could implement.
On to the windows:
What was I trying to achieve? A fighting position? A delay to intrusion?
What COULD I achieve within the bounds of spousal constraints – and budget?
I watched rioters disintegrate some storefront windows – and struggle with others.
I investigated what’s on the market to fortify commercial and residential glass.
I found both plexiglass cover type approaches, and also security film.
I found that 3M is the market leader. I found that 3M will not sell direct to consumer and you need to hire a “window film installer” to do the job if you want 3M material.
I found that 3M window film is quite impressive – I watched dozens of youtube videos on both 3M and other manufactures of window security film.
I hired a firm to install 3M security film (in a 4mil thickness) on the interior of all of my ground floor windows.
This was step one. They didn’t’ do the best job as there were a bunch of small bubbles on many of the edges. This didn’t upset my wife too much – but it bothered me.
I purchased a large quantity of 8mil (very thick) security film off of amazon to install myself.
After watching some videos on how to best do this I got it right on the first try. I wound up installing this film on many of the windows on the OUTSIDE as well – just not on the south side because I was worried the sun and heat would be too much for the film and it would deteriorate or yellow or sag. I am not sure if this would happen or not – but our south face sun is strong and long.
Get the window super clean and have a helper outside – do it on a windless day – otherwise there will be dust trapped between the film and the glass leading to small bubbles.
You need to scrape the entire glass surface with a razor blade to be sure there is nothing at all on the glass before applying. Word of note – if you don’t prep the glass perfectly – don’t bother applying – it will be junk.
It is good exercise to work all of the soapy water out from behind the film after applying.
Long term review
I absolutely love it – totally clear – super good feeling of security – not very expensive – will absolutely slow an intruder down giving you time to react and drive them off.
Not at all bullet-resistant, FYI.
Make sure you use some high-end caulk to seal the edges of the film to the window frame. This will keep them from kicking it out. 3M makes an adhesive that is designed for adhering the window film to the window frame that is stronger than caulk – but it’s gray or white or black – no clear – and so we compromised on performance to get clear since the frame of our windows is wood and the 3M caulk was ugly.