Anyone who has been to the NTBA Nationals from 2003 on or who frequents the NTBA BBS knows who Al “23Tzer” Carpenter is. It’s not because he’s got the fanciest bucket or because he’s got the loudest voice in the room (people who know Al personally will get that inside joke). It’s because he just a good-hearted, down-home kind of guy who loves his bucket, loves his buckethead friends and loves having fun. As Al likes to say, “I don’t think about if I’ll have fun at a gathering of T-buckets... I bring the fun with me.” He does indeed do that, and furthermore, anyone in the vicinity of Al is going to have fun too. Last summer, at the NTBA Nationals in Mountain Home, Al Carpenter was inducted into the NTBA Hall of Fame, becoming only the 12th person to achieve that honor out of the 1,800 or so folks who are or have been members of the NTBA.

In 1954, at the age of 12, Al helped his dad build a service station and shop in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. He says this was when he first became really interested in cars. He and his dad worked together in the business until his father’s death in 1975. During that time Al had a four-year tour of duty in the Air Force in Germany and also earned an associates degree from Westark Community College. The family sold the business in 1982 and Al returned to the University of Arkansas to earn a bachelor’s degree. The family then moved to Missouri where Al worked for United Machinery Supply and Tracker Marine until he retired in 1991.

AI and his lovely wife Shirley met in 1970 and were married in November of that year. They have two boys, Dan and Bobby. Al says, “We shared lots of good times as the boys went through scouting and I served as a scoutmaster. We also spent a lot of time hauling our horses around the rodeo circuit in Arkansas and Oklahoma, where the boys enjoyed riding the roping calves and I even tried my hand at riding a few bulls. It didn’t take long for me to realize that that wasn’t my calling in life!”

Like many bucketheads, Al had several nice cars and motorcycles through the years, including a couple of rat rods built during the ‘70’s, a ‘32 Ford roadster with a 327, and an Olds-powered chopped ‘39 Chevy coupe. But Al says he and Shirley were mainly interested in riding their matching Honda Goldwings all over the country. As they got older and the bikes seemed to be getting heavier and harder to handle, Al and Shirley started looking around for a street rod project to work on. While looking at some old cars at a hot rod shop near Springfild one day in 1991, they spotted a Bird bucket body in the back of the shop and knew right away they wanted to build a T-bucket.

Al says he had never built a car from the ground up, but he knew he wanted it to drive well, be dependable and look decent. He wanted a driver, not a show car. He built the frame for the “Tzer” without any plans except those in his head. He originally used a Chevy I-beam axle on the front and a 10- bolt Chevy rear end, with Chevette coil springs at all four corners. He built a mild Chevy 350 with a Crane cam and 3-deuce carburation, and mated it to a TH400 tranny.

The Tzer was first painted in Sierra Gold using acrylic enamel. Al says it looked OK, but was just not what he had in mind. After a couple of months, he went back to the paint store and picked out the House of Kolor Tangerine Kandy that’s on the car now. Al says, “I don’t claim to be a painter, but I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out.” The 23Tzer was on the road nine months after the build was started.

In July of 2002, Shirley and Al drove down to Mountain Home and bought a Spirit body to build into a trailer to pull behind the Tzer. But when they got home, Shirley asked Al to just go ahead and build her a bucket too. While she made up her list of how she wanted the car built, Al built a trailer from an old car-top carrier that he had kept lying around for years. Shirley’s list included a Mustang II IFS with power steering and power brakes. She also wanted the floor smooth and uncluttered with no driveshaft tunnel, no shifter or pedals on the floor and only the guages on the dash. She also wanted the lights, fan, etc. to come on when she turned on the switch. She picked out the House of Kolor Planet Green Organic paint for the car. It took almost two years to get her car built using CCR plans to build the frame. Says Al, “We got it ready just in time to drive both Ts to Omaha for the Nats. We’re pretty proud that she got a Top 10 pick in Omaha.”

After building Shirley’s car and seeing how well it drove and rode with the IFS, Al went back to work on the Tzer and installed a Mustang II front end and air bag rear suspension, completing it last year in time for the 2006 Nats.

Al and Shirley joined the NTBA in February of ‘02. At that time the Springfield chapter had been organized by Gary Winn and Randy Slama but it wasn’t very active. Al says that many months, he would be the only one to show up for the meetings. In 2003, Al met Randy Roush of Republic, Missouri at the Nats in KC, and with Randy’s help they started getting the word out about the Springfield chapter. They now have 12 to 15 members at every meeting and the club is growing. Al says, “We might not be a big chapter, but we’re one of the more active ones!”

The Carpenter’s philosophy is if you build a hotrod you should drive it. In the five years that the Tzer has been on the road, they have put about 40,000 miles on it. Shirley has over 7,000 miles on the Kermit Kar in less than 3 years. They both have their 500 Mile Tough T patches. Al got his patch a couple of years ago on a trip from Springfield, Missouri to Livingston, Illinois and back. The members that made the trip with him were Dennis Bynum, Gary Winn, and Don Hoffmeier. Al’s son Bobby flew copilot for dad.

Al says, “There’s nothing to compare with the fun of making a trip like this with a group of bucketheads. 500 miles in 12 hours sounds pretty easy until you do it, but it really lives up to the Tough T label. Our little cars have to stop for a drink of gas pretty often and they invariably draw a crowd of onlookers at each stop. We love meeting and talking with the people, but it eats up your driving time. We got home with about 15 minutes to spare on that trip.”

Last year, Shirley wanted to get her patch, so they headed to Paducah to visit Al’s brother and then made the trip home her 500-miler. They left Paducah in a light rain and headed across Hwy. 60 to Springfi eld, which was about 325 miles. From there, Dennis Bynum and John Brown joined up with them for another 200 miles to Nevada, Missouri and back. As far I know, Al and Shirley are the only couple who have each earned their own 500-mile patches in their own buckets! Al says he and Shirley hope to go for their 1000-mile patches later this year.

Al has put a lot of energy into helping bucketheads enjoy their cars and the fellowship of other bucketheads, but what he may be most well known for is the T-Bucket rodeo. The rodeo got started when Dennis Bynum and Al were talking about what the Springfield chapter could do as a group to help add to the excitement at the Nats. Says Al, “Dennis was a truck driver and I had watched him drive his big rig in a truck driving skills competition. We started thinking of ways to adapt it to our little cars. As you know, it has turned out to be a popular event at the Nats the last couple of years.”

Last year, Shirley wanted to add something to the rodeo that would be fun for the lady bucketheads, so she set up the barrel race course for them. It turned out to be so much fun some of the guys disguised themselves as women and ran the barrels with them. That was what yielded John Ashlock’s 5-minute (well, it seems like 5-minutes!) burn-out donut shenanigan that graces the beginning of the 2006 Nats video. Seems John was having some trouble with the barrels and he got a little frustrated!

Al was also one of the organizers of the valve cover races, held for the first time at the 2006 Nats. Having personally witnessed this event, I can tell you there was some intense (but goodnatured) competition in the arena that day! Al had what I thought was the coolest racer, a Chevy tin valve cover with a blown Hemi dropped into it. It just looked mean! Unfortunately, I think Al had some suspension issues or something and he DNF’ed!

On his having been chosen for the honor, Al says, “Over the years, I’ve collected numerous trophies for drag racing, car shows, photography, and model railroads, but the experience that outshines them all is when Punkun called out my name to be inducted into the T-bucket Hall of Fame last year in Mountain Home.” Well Al, having spent time with you in Mountain Home last summer, I can say you truly deserve it. You are a sweetheart of a guy who brings a lot of fun to the buckethead family.

Congratulations! And as Al likes to say “Gotta love it!”