I put a thin coat of solder onto the parts and refit them. Poor mans babbit bearing fix.
When I was 17 a local mechanic showed me how to fix my engine. First fix was to repair damage from broken piston rings by putting the piston onto a lathe and cutting the land so two rings could be stacked. Then he took the loose wrist pins and put a coating of solder onto them then drove the pins back into the pistons. That old 62 Ford six was so quiet.....he also fixed the stripped oil pump drive in the bottem of the distributor by soldering it in place. Ran for years like that.
Nice... Did you soak the head gasket in water and reuse it?