Originally Posted by
southpawboston
I read somewhere that hardened steel applies only to the surface of the steel object. If you grind it away, it reveals unhardened steel beneath. I'm no metallurgist, it's just something I read on the interwebs (so therefore it's true, right?).
Yeah, I'm no metallurgist neither, but I'm sure you're right. Grinding down the existing races would remove the hardened steel and you're left with only the soft stuff. It's like, if you had a pothole in a paved road, the solution is to remove the pavement. You'll end up with a smooth dirt road.
I like the idea of finding some kind of bearing cups that would fit into the existing ones; you'd be adding maybe 1 mm on each side, so you'd probably need a longer spindle. You may have to have the spindle, cone, and cups custom made, but that would still be easier than trying to take apart the pedals and fix the existing cups.