During more than 30 years of crankshaft grinding, I have been asked many times to repair a surface that needle bearings ride on. For years, the only advice I could offer to customers was to go buy a new part.
The problem was that a needle bearing needs a super-hard surface to ride on or it will not hold up. The surface must have a Rockwell hardness of about 65 on the C scale. Although welding a journal on a crankshaft will hold up just fine, and you