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An employee at Texas Armoring Corp., in 2016, welds metal panels inside an SUV to make it bullet-resistant. TAC, which armors cars and SUVs that will be sent across the country and around the world, filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday.

Trent Kimball, President and CEO of Texas Armoring Corp., at the company’s San Antonio headquarters in 2017. The company filed for bankruptcy protection Friday.

Vehicles undergoing armoring at Texas Armoring Corp’s San Antonio facility in 2016. TAC armors cars and SUVs that will be sent across the country and around the world. The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Friday.

Welders work on various portions of vehicles undergoing armoring installations through Texas Armoring Corp.

Welders work on various portions of vehicles undergoing armoring installations through Texas Armoring Corp. It listed assets and liabilities ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 each in a bankruptcy petition Friday.

Texas Armoring Corp. specializes in providing bulletproof glass and armor made of ballistic steel for numerous car models. The company sought bankruptcy protection Friday.

Vehicles undergoing armoring are seen inside Texas Armoring Corp.’s San Antonio facility in 2016. The company filed for Chapter 11 Friday.

This showroom floor exhibit of a bulletproof windshield exemplifies how Texas Armoring Corporation's vehicle customizations can prevent bullets from an AK-47 fully automatic rifle from passing through the windshield.

An employee of Texas Armoring welds metal panels inside a vehicle in 2016 to make it bullet resistant. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last week.

Vehicles undergoing armoring are seen inside Texas Armoring Corporation's east side facility Nov. 4, 2016. TAC armors cars and SUVs that will be sent across the country and around the world.

Trent Kimball, President and CEO of Texas Armoring Corporation, talks Sept. 20, 2017 in front of a Ford "Black Ops" truck in the company's San Antonio facility. Texas Armoring retro-fits custom armoring products to production vehicles. They can provide anything from light hand gun protection all the way up to armor piercing rounds protection.

A San Antonio company that protects dignitaries, the wealthy and the famous from terrorists and kidnappers by retrofitting vehicles with bullet-resistant steel and windows needed some protection of its own.

Texas Armoring Corp. has sought refuge from creditors by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, listing assets and liabilities each in the range of $100,000 to $500,000.

Texas Armoring, or TAC, went viral more than seven years ago with a YouTube video titled “This Is What It’s Like To Be Shot At With an AK-47 in a Mercedes-Benz.”

A man dressed in a dark suit aimed an assault rifle at the gleaming black SUV’s windshield and fired a dozen shots at it — with company President Ronald “Trent” Kimball calmly seated behind the wheel.

The shots pummeled the windshield but didn’t penetrate the glass.

When the demonstration ended, Kimball emerged from the vehicle, stared at the camera and recited the company’s motto, “Life is valuable — protect it.” The video has garnered almost 27.5 million views.

TAC’s bare-bones bankruptcy petition offered no details on what led it to seek protection from creditors.

The company describes itself on its website as “the market leader for manufacturing quality, lightweight armored cars, trucks, SUVs, and other specialty vehicles.”

“When we armor a vehicle, the entire passenger compartment is protected,” a TAC executive said in another YouTube video. “Roof, floor, windows, doors, pillars, posts, panels, firewall, rear wall.” Kimball then added, “The battery box, the engine computer and the fuel tank.”

TAC was founded by Kimball’s father, Ronald Kimball, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who worked in Latin America and “learned firsthand how armored vehicles can save lives.”

The elder Kimball’s dream was to sell armored vehicles to the world’s elite and to protect families, TAC’s website says.

In 2007, the San Antonio Express-News reported how TAC — after fortifying Cadillacs, Lincolns, Lexuses, Mercedeses and BMWs — was retrofitting its first Toyota Tundra.

The San Antonio-built truck was set to resemble something out of a spy novel. The limited edition double cab would be able to withstand armor-piercing rounds, protected by steel more than a quarter-inch thick. The glass in the windows would be more than 2 inches thick.

The truck’s doors would be filled with more than 2 inches of a woven polymer to stop armor-piercing rounds while keeping the doors from sagging like they would with heavier steel reinforcement. The tires were reinforced so the truck still would be drivable if the tires were shot out.

“Further Hollywood-like accouterments: The truck can dump tacks on the road to stop pursuers, create a smoke screen in the back and zap intruders trying to get in, thanks to electrified door handles,” the article added.

“We call it the James Bond package,” Trent Kimball said.

In 2017, TAC announced that it would build a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Honduras to meet the demand for large orders of armored vehicles. The building would allow high-volume orders to be processed quicker while its 40,000-square-foot San Antonio location focused on custom and specialized vehicles, the Express-News reported at the time.

The Honduras plant was expected to produce as many as 200 vehicles a year. The San Antonio shop produced up to 80 a year.

Most of TAC’s customers are from Mexico, but it has also shipped vehicles to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The company has listed for sale on its Facebook page a Ford F150 pickup that has been retrofitted to withstand high-power rifles, including the AK-47 and M16. Asking price: $120,000.

TAC’s bankruptcy petition, filed Friday, lists Broadway Bank as the largest unsecured creditor, with a $400,000 claim. Other creditors include Chase Bank, owed $36,000, and Capital One, owed $20,000.

TAC has been in litigation with Nsima Ekere, a Houston resident who conducts extensive business in Nigeria. TAC installed bulletproofing and armoring features on Ekere’s 2013 Mercedes-Benz G63 and S550.

In an amended complaint filed in 2020 in state District Court in San Antonio, Ekere accused TAC of failing to complete two inspections and repairs as required under a maintenance agreement. He also alleged TAC failed to complete work in a timely manner on two 2018 Range Rover vehicles slated for use in campaigning during 2019 gubernatorial elections in Nigeria. He sued for breach of contract, fraud and violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The two sides agreed to mediate the dispute April 13 but were unable to reach a resolution, Chidi Anunobi, Ekere’s Houston lawyer, said Monday.

“They threatened during mediation that they were going to be filing bankruptcy,” Anunobi said, adding that TAC still has the two Range Rovers.

Bankruptcy generally puts a hold on pending lawsuits involving a debtor.

Earlier this year, Tezgen Otomotiv — a Portugal-based producer of armored protective glass for vehicles — sued TAC in Bexar County, seeking to collect under $100,000 that’s allegedly owed. TAC hasn’t filed a response.

Kimball and TAC’s bankruptcy lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday.

Patrick Danner is a business reporter for the San Antonio Express-News.