Jim Donis

This car is now fully Restored

Back in 1974, a friend purchased a Chev to restore, he said also he knew of a Buick that was for sale, so I decided to go
and have a look, it was a 1948 Buick Sedanette, It didn’t take too much convincing to purchase this Buick. This car
was originally seen by other Buick owners parked at a house in Canning Highway, Attadale in the 1960s but was finally
bought from the then owner who was living in Kelmscott. I drove it around for about six months and then decided to
restore the car. Being in my early 20s, I did not know what I was getting into. I stripped the car to the bare body and
just left it sitting on the chassis and there it sat. (It was my gunna project.)
In 1998, I met Dave Duncan who was going to the USA to buy car parts, so I took the opportunity to get him to
source out the parts I also needed. (And he delivered.) At this time, it was the only two-door 1948 Buick Sedanette in
Australia. Seeing what he was able to do with panel and paint was amazing, after seeing my car, he agreed to work
on the Buick. Dave’s father owned a service station in Applecross and as a young man Dave saw this car on a regular basis and

he referred to it as 108 that was the original number plate. The restoration took some time, as I was very particular it
had to be done properly. I had no problems as Dave was a perfectionist, and the restoration was finished in November
1992 in time for the GM Day.
I have now owned this car for 44 years. The original owner was Harry Baker, link below in an interesting article on
Harry Baker at the end of the video shows this ‘48 Buick he purchased.