Yes, I converted the bass to a reverse body when I painted it Cardinal Red. I cut the center section 4" just like a 'real' reverse and made reverse wings from mahogany and put them on. Looked pretty damn good except the upper horn where it meets the neck was a little higher than a real one. I don't think I have any pix of it, but I'll look.
I kept the NR body wings for all those years in my shop and re-attached them when I pulled it out from under the bed when I refinned it Kerry Green after it's long retirement. I see Joe mailed the seller to tell him about the 'conversion'.... I purposely left that out of my 'history' of the bass because I thought it would deter someone from buying what I knew was a killer bass. After the wings were re-attached, it was as good as original. And it is a killer 'bird....checkered past or not. What a history, huh??? Great bass!!
An interesting sidenote on the deal I made with Joe. We had an aggrement that if he ever wanted to sell it, that it would go to me. Two weeks after our trade, he calls me to say 'dude, you are giong to kill me'... I knew what happened. He traded it to Scott Silver at Chicago Music Exchange for I can't remember what. He talked me out of that bass, but I knew I would get it back if he wanted to sell it....Scott said it 'wasn't for sale' because he had already promised it to Borden, so I'm told. I just wrote it off and got over it.
If I didn't already have the Frost Blue NR in my avatar, I would have bid on it to get it back. Props to the seller for disclosing it after Joe mailed him with it's history. I think 4.5K is all the money for it, it's history notwithstanding. The color is what sold that bass for that kind of money. Oh well, somebody got a fine bass. This is the classic case that you never know what could be going on under that Firebird or Thunderbird solid color refin!!!!!!