Conrail Gondola with different side panels

Heres an Ex Conrail Gondola that got a major repair note the side of the car it looks as if Conrail cut two different Gondolas in half and welded them together. The car was full of Scrap Aluminum ingots. The photo was taken in Auburn, NY in 2002. Any idea as to what inspired Conrail to make such a repair over just scraping the car??

By the looks of it with the rivet line, I have a feeling this was originally a flat car converted into
a gondola. It looks like the old style of flat from pre-Conrail days. Fabricating it into a Gon was
cheaper than purchasing new and back then, railroads were still poor.

Charlie

Thats what you call 1:1 kitbashing,it may not look good,but it works.
Conrail at startup,had to be creative with what was avaible to repair cars,if a car too far gone to be rebuilt,
use parts salvaged to keep the rest of the fleet moving.

I don't think it's anything more than a 12 panel coiled steel gon with three of it's ribbed panels replaced with smooth ones,the ones to the right of the NYC.