How to repurpose a large oak table?

in thrift store i saw a large oval heavy table that had been cut in half to make it a size of a drop leaf table, but only about 4"deep. somehow they had cut it in half, made a panel about 4" and width of the table. take the panel out and 2 sides come together for the original table and even holds the 2 leaves. -all starting from 4" wide "table". i am thinking that i would like to make it modern and cut the sides off of the leaves, and use iron/light weight legs. has anyone seen something like this? it was amazing. i loved it and would have snatched it just as a prototype. but i want it to be light weight and painted with car paint