I am not advocating this but back in the day when bearings were shimmed and pistons were knurled to make repairs with used parts thrust surfaces were peened to spread the copper and make the overall thrust surface thicker. My dad did this with a small center punch, a ball peen hammer, a flat file, and a lot of time and experience. Dimpling the copper pushed some of the metal from the center to the edge of the dimple making the over all surface thicker. Then through trial and error it was taken back to the needed thickness.
It's only metal and end play specs are only guidelines.
