Kevin Phipps said that getting his hands on this 1969 Camaro — the second time — was like hitting the lottery.

 Phipps, of Excelsior Springs, first bought the car in 1977. With big wheels and a hot V-8, it was fast. He was young. He drove his dream to college in Warrensburg, Mo., where he met Debbie, now his wife. The Camaro was expensive to drive back and forth to school, so after a couple of years he sold it. That was late 1979.

 Skip ahead about 20 years. Phipps began to think about restoring an old a car. Debbie quipped, “What if you could find your old Camaro?” The search was on, but without a VIN number, finding it would be a needle-in-the-haystack thing. The only identification Phipps had was the license number. Missouri’s Department of Revenue does not have computerized records for 1979, and requests to track down old VIN numbers can take months because folders have to be thumbed individually. Phipps hired a private investigator to track the vehicle’s history, but the trail went cold after the car was sold to an unkown person in St. Joseph, Mo. Phipps thought it was hopeless.

 Then one Saturday Chris Blakley, a friend, asked how the search was going. When Phipps explained the Camaro’s trail was last known to be in St. Joe, his friend said he had an acquaintance who mentioned that he saw an orange Camaro sitting in the back of a St. Joe body shop. Phipps phoned the shop and then went to visit. Sure enough, the VIN number matched. It was his old car. The windshield scratch was still there and the dash pad screwed down by Phipps and his dad was still intact. Even the cracked rear panel hadn’t been replaced.

 Phipps bought the car, although he chuckled and said that he paid more for it than he got when he sold it.

 He towed the Camaro back to Excelsior Springs. He ripped out the interior and repaired rusted floorboards. He took the car to Quality Body Works in  Lawson, Mo., where Gary Van Hooser replaced most of the body panels. Lloyd Johnson of Accent Auto Trim reupholstered the interior. Justin and Bill Skinner, friends of Phipps’, helped take the engine out and put it back.

 In a little over a year, the orange Camaro looked better than new. Today, the exhaust pipes rumble like a cat purrs. Phipps was rewarded with a trophy in his first car show.

 Phipps and his Camaro seem to have some mysterious karma. While his perserverance was a factor in locating the car, it took more than a little luck to actually find it. Now that it is back in his garage, in like-new condition, it will probably stay there for many a year.