The old car I'm restoring with my son uses a swing axle rear end. Suspension wise it's not the best, but the engineering in one area is an issue: The wheel hubs are located on a taper and with a key in a slot. The issue I want to revise is that the key is staked in place with sharp triangular stakes either side. These are crack propagation points are there have been a number of axle failures and wheel losses as a result. Obviously we will crack test them, however would it be a viable fix to grind the stake out and then shot peen the whole tapered area?
https://i.ibb.co/F7s...e1-spitfire.jpg