BUTLER TWP — Judging by many of the Jeeps gathered Friday at Butler County Community College before the parade through downtown Butler, Jeep owners are not satisfied with run-of-the-mill factory options.

“When you buy a Jeep, it’s just a down payment on accessories,” said Chuck Sylvester of Rochester, Mass.

“You don’t just buy it off the shelf. You find it, fix it and put it back together again.”

He and wife, Jeanne, drove their 1985 Jeep Cherokee, atop its 8-inch lift, 37-inch tires and 5.0-liter Mustang engine, to be part of the 1,300-Jeep parade because, well, it’s “Jeeping.”

Thousands of Jeepers milled around the organized chaos of BC3’s campus, with state park rangers and campus police officers, as well as volunteers, coordinating the Jeeps into neat rows to prepare for the parade.

A rainbow of license plates hailed from places like Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Indiana and, of course, Pennsylvania.

Some Jeeps were pristine, with custom paint and rims, while others, like one Jeep with Ohio plates reading “H8PVMNT” (hate pavement), were barely recognizable underneath thick layers of mud.

The Sylvesters’ Jeep, a veteran of rock climbs in Moab, Utah, fell somewhere in between.

“It’s definitely not a trailer queen,” said Chuck Sylvester.

Marshall and Kathi Shord of Ocean Pines, Md., love their Jeep for its utility, too, driving it on the nearby beach.

Marshall Shord grew up in Warrendale, and both he and Kathi have family in Butler.

Like so many others, their 1996 Jeep Cherokee has been modified with everything from a 3.5-inch lift and 33-inch tires to Ultra rims.

Kathi Shord jokingly said Jeep stands for “Just Empty Every Pocket.”

Their Jeep didn’t start that way. It was rebuilt from a wreck and cost just $500 to buy.

“From what it was to what it is, (it) is a pretty big accomplishment,” she said.

Marshall Shord said the allure of rebuilding the Jeep was, in part, the opportunity to do the work with one of his sons.

“(It was a) family project. That’s a good part of it,” he said.

Geoff and Jeanne Robillard of Walworth, N.Y., were part of the pristine Jeep crowd.

“Some people get them dirty, some don’t,” Geoff Robillard said.

His 1989 Jeep YJ hardly resembles the assembly line model with its new tires, wheels, exhaust, winch, lights, bug shield and custom seats, as well as one final touch: a sticker on the dash reading “Not all who wander are lost.”

“It was cheap. It’s a project. I do a little bit every winter,” he said.

Craig and Michelle Cakouros of Sanford, Maine, also avoid off-roading, but for a different reason — it can be tough to find parts for a 1941 Willys MB, the first production “slat-grill style” Jeep.

“It was sitting in a guy’s field in New Hampshire,” Craig Cakouros said. “My roommate saw it and recognized it for what it was. Unfortunately, there were geese living around it. I couldn’t look at it because they kept chasing me away.”

The school teacher eventually did get his hands on that Jeep and spent two summers restoring it.

“I just attack it. I don’t putter,” he said.

“My uncle got me into it when I was a kid in 1980. I never thought I’d be able to do one myself.”

He now has rebuilt about nine jeeps and owns three: the 1941 Willys MB, a 1942 Willys MB and a 1979 Jeep CJ5 he has driven for 20 years.

The 1941 Willys is painted in U.S. Navy colors to honor the uncle who died in 1990 who inspired Cakouros’ passion for Jeeps.

“(My uncle) was a World War II naval veteran. I did this in honor of him,” Craig Cakouros said.

The numbers on the Jeep’s hood represent his uncle’s birthday, while the ones on the rear bumper commemorate his landing station ship, LST-394.

Greg Gorring of Washington, Pa., also found his diamond in the rough — a 1960 Willys CJ5 — as a dilapidated farm vehicle.

“I just always liked this style, since I was a kid,” Gorring said.

“(The Jeep) was a basketcase. It was horrible. I rebuilt everything from the frame up.”

Gorring just finished his six-year project in September, complete with an original 134-cubic inch F-head engine.

Now, he’s moving on to a 1981 Jeep Scrambler he bought last year.

“It’s in just as bad of shape,” Gorring said.

Two generations apart but both with a love of Jeeps are Dick Couteret of Johnstown, Pa., and his grandson, Matthew Couteret of Poquoson, Va.

The younger Couteret was driving a 1994 Jeep YJ, personalized with a demilitarized grenade in place of the shift knob, courtesy of an army surplus store near his home.

“That was always my dad’s dream car, to buy a Jeep. And he handed it down to me,” Matthew Couteret said.

Dick Couteret has a 1988 Jeep YJ, but drove his son’s, Matthew’s father’s, 1998 Jeep TJ.

Unlike many in the crowd, Dick Couteret didn’t need to have all the after-market bells and whistles on his Jeep, content with the majesty of the utility vehicle relatively unchanged since the 1940s, a time of men set apart with the moniker “The Greatest Generation,” due both to their wartime heroism and hardiness.

The same reverence could be afforded the Jeep.

“They’re just a lot of fun to drive, I think,” Dick Couteret said. “You have to be a mechanic, a machinist, a welder, everything. But they’ll run forever as long as you can keep repairing them.”