There's a few options you could do. 1 would be to find a replacement axle shaft. It would have to be NOS, as they are not being made new to my knowlege. I don't know if one from a '55 2nd would work, I beleive there is a axle length difference. 2nd option would be to have the damaged shaft welded up and remachined to spec. 3rd option would be to use an "axle saver" type bearing, which is a pressed op type bearing similar to the passenger rear or a 9" ford.
I would not turn the axle down, you could comprimise the strength.
I'm not sure what you mean by "real bearing". The only difference is that this style bearing uses the axle shaft itself as the inner race. There's millions of axles out there with this style bearing, all modern 1/2 tons, many 3/4 tons, and virtually all live axle rwd cars use it. Why? Less expensive to manufacture, easier to repair, and to be honest, the other design has no real advantages to the average stret driven vehicle.
