Sisters carry on family auto body business in San Dimas, winning awards for designing custom vehicles

SAN DIMAS, Calif. (KABC) -- It's not unusual for women to work in the family automotive business. But two Southern California sisters are very much hands-on. Theresa Contreras and Sara Morosan operate LGE-CTS Motorsports in San Dimas, an auto body business that their father founded years ago.

"The reason my parents started the auto body shop was because my dad loved working on cars," said Theresa.

While the shop still does general auto body work, it's custom vehicles that have really put the business, and Theresa and Sara, on the automotive map. For a number of years, they've been creating custom vehicles for big automakers to display at the big Specialty Equipment Market Association trade show in Las Vegas. Wild trucks that haven't just wowed the crowds, but garnered these clever siblings some awards.

"I think it's because we go to so many different types of shows. Different types of consumer shows, and you see things in the hot rod world, and we'll think 'Hey, how can we incorporate that into our truck build,'" said Sara.

And they're always at it for regular customers as well. Word has spread quickly that this family-run shop is a place to customize your truck, especially one that will go off-road.

"It's really about be respected for what you do," noted Theresa.

These two women love what they do, and are lifelong off-road enthusiasts, so on weekends they get to play with the vehicles they create. But they're also about giving back to the community, particularly when it comes to automotive education for young people. They're heavily involved with the AXC automotive studies program at the nearby Fairplex. It's essentially a centralized auto shop for high school students, as many individual schools don't offer that kind of trade education anymore.

"We have Auto 101 through 104, and this year we added welding, and fabrication, and auto body," said Sara.

So you might see a really cool truck on the road and wonder what guy came up with it. In this case, "that guy" might be one of these two very skilled and creative ... ladies.