Butler's Bantam Jeep up, running
Butler's Bantam Jeep is up and running — just in time to represent a piece of city history in summer parades and events.
City council recently took possession of the 1941 example of rolling Butler iron from the Butler County Historical Society and placed it in the hands of the Old Stone House Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America for storage and maintenance.
Club members have spent about 90 hours over five recent weekends replacing a few parts and getting the Jeep running.
A few minor fixes are needed before it re-emerges to the public.
“We took it on as a club project to give it back to the community,” John Pro, club president, said as he and other members reviewed the work that went into the vehicle in a garage where they also keep restored examples of two other vehicles once made in Butler — the city's 1909 Huselton and the club's 1922 Standard 8.
“The club likes to take the vehicles out for the public to see. Many people don't know vehicles were made in Butler,” said Dan Sum, one of the club members who worked on the Jeep.Of the 2,575 Jeeps made by Bantam, 1,000 were shipped to Russia during World War II, said club member Bob Brandon, who owns a 1933 Bantam Roadster.Only 50 to 55 Bantam Jeeps are known to exist today, he said.The city's Bantam is packing a 4-cylinder flathead Continental engine from the 1930s in place of the original engine of the same type, Pro said.“It wouldn't start,” he said.Club members traced the problem to a worn out ring gear on the fly wheel and removed the engine to make the repair.The fly wheel and a stock ring gear were sent to a shop to be mated and were reattached.Deteriorated engine mounts were discovered after the engine had been reinstalled so the engine was pulled again to replace the mounts, and then reinstalled.Pro described the hours that five club members spent on the Jeep as quality time.“The majority of the time there were five of us. We were learning the vehicle. That's why I call it quality time,” he said. “There's five of us right now that know the vehicle.”The clutch was adjusted, the belt, battery cable and radiator hoses were replaced, brakes were checked and a fuel line was replaced.A case of vapor lock was cured by relocating the fuel line away from the exhaust pipe because heating fuel in the line caused the engine to stall.“It had extreme heat on it all the time,” Pro said.Installing an original steering wheel, fixing an oil leak, replacing a burned out brake light and touching up the paint in a couple places are all that's left to do before the Jeep is ready for summer duty, including having a featured place in the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival set June 8 to 10.The parts cost a little more than $600 and the club is looking for a sponsor to cover that amount. The club will ask for donations at events to cover future maintenance.The Cranberry-based Heritage Region Jeep Alliance is paying for the Jeep's insurance and the Friends of the Bantam Jeep Association, which organizes the festival, also supports the club's efforts, Pro said.“Between the three groups we have a good community thing here,” Pro said.
