A hot rod widow she ain't. Wanting a driver for herself (where she didn't have to worry about scratching or hurting "his car"), LuAnn Lesher says her Rambler wagon took three years to build-two years of nagging and one year to redo.
But it's a safe bet when LuAnn met up with Ted Lesher in 1973, her life would somehow be connected to hot rodding. Ted and LuAnn run Ted's Body Shop (founded in 1981) in Des Moines, Iowa, and the pair have seen a good selection of cars and trucks roll through their place (a handful of which have appeared in other car publications). LuAnn would be the first to admit this Rambler isn't a show stopper-it's a driver, but it does cause more than a few folks to stop and stare when the couple pull up in it and hang out at a car show.
It looks pretty stock because...
It looks pretty stock because it is. Jeff Piper (Norwalk, IA) machined the six-cylinder Rambler engine, which was assembled at Harvey's Machine. Displacing 195 cubes and 125 hp, the engine reliably gets the wagon down the road, but not at any record-setting pace.
Ted Lesher likes 17-inch wheels,...
Ted Lesher likes 17-inch wheels, and a complete set of 7-inch-wide American five-spokes are found on each corner along with a Sumitomo 225/45-17 rubber. One of the few custom touches on LuAnn's ride was the removal of the sliding side window, which was replaced by tinted one-piece glass. John Sutherlin from Ted's shop straightened out the body before he painted it using 8555 DuPont black and 8624 white paint, and Chrome Reflections (Des Moines, IA) did all the chrome work.
Complementing the black exterior,...
Complementing the black exterior, LuAnn went with a red interior, similar to what you'd find in a '62 Impala. Steve and Marilyn Rolfe (Durant, IA) did the expert stitching, adding color-matched Juliano seatbelts and red loop pile carpet in the process. Ted rebuilt the stock steering wheel and also fabbed the stainless insert for the dash. Though stock in appearance, the dash also hides the Custom Autosound stereo system that comes with an iPod interface.