Weapons to acquire first:
Strongest defending vehicles:
Red Angels, then Lloyds
Blades are still the strongest defense weapon.
Tantos and Ubjicas are your attacking weapons.
Viks and Coats for armor. I recommend if you have a choice get the Viks, Coats don’t take as much energy to loot and are easier to trade for pirates or lotto.
Attacking vehicles, Zolotos, or the new Trios.

A strategy for using Bangkok to your advantage.
If you’re like me and lost your faction weapons, or you never got the glitch, I believe the best way to do Bangkok is as follows. 1) Use stamina to get to the maximum trust levels for both sides. You also have a good opportunity to pick up both car parts, weapons, and Baht. Use energy to just do the same job over and over. Possibly one that drops satellite phones and work yourself slowly up to where you do the job that gets Lloyds to drop. Bank your Baht and try to add one or two pieces of armor a week. Don’t waste your baht on trying to rush through Bangkok. Most jobs require you to spend precious Baht that you need for Armor. You have to think of it more like looting Baht so you can acquire Armor. Focus on making cars. If you have two accounts take a moment to send just one gift from Bangkok to your other account. Make sure it says RARE before you send it. Have Trios, Red Angels, and either Bullet Proof Glass or Solar Panels on your wish list. For your fighter build Rebel 2 or Solar Flares so you get more stamina or energy. For your energy/farm account build Red Angels or Trios and then send those to your fighting account. Give yourself a couple months and you can easily acquire 70 to 100 of these cars which are far stronger and fully tradeable, unlike the strongest faction vehicles. I believe this will give you the maximum ability to increase your weapons strength until Las Vegas opens.
Using Stamina for Robbing vs Fighting
Robbing lets you use your stamina up quickly. Fighting drops weapons and car parts. If I have the time I prefer fighting.