FLAT FENDERS Club members are partial to vintage Jeeps
For the past 12 years, the Flat Fender Club of Butler has gathered fans of vintage-style Jeeps.
Dave Zibrat, acting club president, said its 180 members are interested in Jeeps with flat fenders, which includes the original Bantam Jeeps produced in Butler as well as those manufactured by companies such as Willys and Ford from 1940 to about 1964.
“If you have a question about vintage Jeeps, there's about 200 or 300 years of expertise in the club,” Zibrat said. “You're answer is undoubtedly going to be had in short order.”
The club was founded after Zibrat and his friend Clarence Preston went to the home of Bob Beran in Boyers after Beran advertised some parts for sale. They met Todd Simmers there.
Preston and Zibrat had been discussing forming a Jeep club for a while. Zibrat, Preston, Beran and Simmers became the founders.
Zibrat of Mount Chestnut noted that there is another local Jeep club, but these men were interested in a group specific to vintage Jeeps.
It was decided by the early members that they did not want a charter. So, there are no dues and no officers, leaving Zibrat to handle many of the administrative duties.
Zibrat tries to generate a newsletter monthly. There have been more than 150 produced since the founding.
The club meets on the first Friday of the month, unless it conflicts with a holiday, at Kings restaurant in Buffalo Township. Zibrat said it usually starts at 6 p.m. and the subject matter could be anything.
“But it's mainly Jeeps,” he said.
The club also has a meet and greet Tuesday nights in different locations.
“It's strictly a forum for Jeep discussion,” Zibrat said.
The club has done projects with Bantam trailers, which were made in Butler. The first 2,000 civilian Jeeps were converted military Jeeps.Club members discovered one with the serial number 414 in East Butler. A few members put a lot of work into it, and it was donated to the Butler County Historical Society.Zibrat said the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau sponsored that project.“So we just did the labor,” Zibrat said.If a member has some work to do on his Jeep, others may spend an evening helping out. The club also has several Jeeps that are being restored.A couple of weeks ago, the club took a “cruise” through Cook Forest.“That's just cruising around, stopping for lunch at one of the restaurants, cruising around some more and calling it a day — just to show off our flat-fendered Jeeps,” Zibrat said.Some members live as far away as Alaska and South America. They can find out about happenings through the newsletter.Their particular interests cover a lot of ground: some are concerned with off-roading, others with military Jeeps and some with civilian Jeeps.“There's a lot of camaraderie in the Jeep world, just like in the motorcycle world,” Zibrat said.A couple members, including Zibrat, are on the committee for the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival.“It was sort of a dream of ours anyway, in the Jeep community, but we never had the financial horsepower to pull it off,” Zibrat said.He has been interested in Jeeps since he was a boy.“I'm 80 right now, and I've been driving them since I was 12,” Zibrat said.His family owned a 1946 Jeep while he was growing up on a farm in Gibsonia. He currently is on his 21st Jeep.“I've owned a lot of Jeeps,” Zibrat said.For information about the club, visit flatfenderclubofbutler.wordpress.com.
