A lot of Help Needed on my Car's History Please

[bbbentley]

I have enjoyed the privilege of being a site member for some time and have had lots of help and made some great friendships. I have owned this 396 Camaro for 37 years. I did not have the funds when I found this car in the fall of 79 for $400 less engine, so my close friend bought it for me and I paid him back. By the spring of 80 I had this car back on the road. At 18, I was just glad to have a hot rod and never considered POPs or documentation or owner history.
Fast forward 30 + years and my curiosity about how and why the car got painted as it did and finding out if it was a "special" car or just a run of the mill SS (if there is such a thing lol). I traced the owner history back 3 owners and that only covers a short year and a half before I got the car. All those past owners are local in the Cincinnati East side area. What I can tell you is the car started life as a low horse 396 car. It has its original M20 and its original 3.31 BS rear. With the V.top gone you can see it started out as 72 H.Orange. It has a 4 core curve neck radiator. It suffered a collision on the L. front that has the L. fender and hood replaced (possibly other parts) Driver door still original and RH fender.
I have run into a brick wall after that and time is not on my side. Here are my specific questions:
1)Does anybody, here, recognize this car from back in the day?
2)Does anyone on here know who could have painted the car the way I got it (the paint was showing a lot of age when I got it)? Some guys locally said only a handful of guys could paint a car like that back then. Does anyone recognize who's work it is?
3)Does anyone know if low horse cars ever got high horse conversions? Is there history of that happening? Previous
owners claimed it had a high HP engine, but old memories sometime lie I realize
I know it is a lot to ask, but I know there are so many better detectives that if I just rely on my own skills, it may never go anywhere. So, looking for the 1st 8-9 years of the car's life.
Thanks sYc