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Oxnard company is beefing up vehicles for use in war zone

Scott Hadly A former off-road racer shows how he prepares military vehicles for the war zone. Danny Wreesman strips down a 20-ton Navy tractor truck to be reinforced with a high-threat armor kit at Southern California Gold Products. It is the prototype for 11 vehicles the Oxnard company has been contracted to beef up. Photos by Eric Parsons / Star staff. Danny Wreesman strips down a 20-ton Navy tractor truck to be reinforced with a high-threat armor kit at Southern California Gold Products. It is the prototype for 11 vehicles the Oxnard company has been contracted to beef up. Order Photos related linksSTORY TOOLS * E-mail story * Comments * iPod friendly * Printer friendly * Digg! related linksMore from Business * New Mexico, with its perks and vistas, is a film mecca * Extension doesn't extend time to pay * T.O. author among beneficiaries of paperback promoter's campaigns Danny Wreesman fashions a metal plug to cap heater core lines on a Navy truck that he and co-workers are stripping down in preparation for an armor job. Danny Wreesman fashions a metal plug to cap heater core lines on a Navy truck that he and co-workers are stripping down in preparation for an armor job. Order Photos Glenn Harris tilted a heavy piece of pockmarked armor onto its edge. The green veneer was gouged and dented with quarter- and dime-sized cavities. Next to each divot was a bit of writing, some in white, some in gray and black: "7.62 x39LC," "5.50," "AP 308." "That one's armor piercing," said Harris, a 49-year-old champion off-road racer turned defense contractor. He owns Southern California Gold Products in Oxnard. He pointed at another hole, where the caliber of the projectile was marked in white. "That's a high-velocity round," he said while drifting his finger over it. "And that one's from an AK-47." Harris' company began installing "up-armor kits" on Humvees, trucks, bulldozers, cranes and other military vehicles about three years ago. On Harris' factory floor is an armored door with blast glass that's been tested with a simulated IED explosion. The fragments split open the metal covering on one hinge, cut the skin of the door in spots and knocked a big spider web of cracks into the window, but nothing blew all the way through. Knowing that their work makes a difference has driven Harris and his employees to work harder. "It's saved a lot of lives," he said of the company's first armoring effort in early 2004 ? shields mounted around gun turrets on top of Humvees. "We got e-mails and photos from guys thanking us." ... Harris' company was among dozens of companies from across the country that rallied to patch up the military's Achilles' heel in Iraq. The competitive field is a bit cutthroat. Last year, Gold Products won a lawsuit against a defense contractor that didn't pay for work the company performed. But instead of getting paid, Harris' company was sued by the other company in federal court. The company alleged that Gold Products had taken its trade secrets for armoring military vehicles.

Full post as published by The Trade Secrets Vault on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).