Pulling apart my 258 that wiped a lobe and figured I'd better pull mains and rod caps to have a look. This is what I saw on almost all the bearings. It's like a brown deposit, like varnish.

Let's see if the picture works:

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad114/DiscoKat76/bluehornetenginepull001.jpg
What do you guys think? Should I replace bearings? Having the crank polished is not in the budget nor in the cards - nobody in the area can do that sort of thing.

The engine only had 46,000 miles but many of those miles were with grandma at the helm so I'm sure this old gal saw a lot of idling.

that looks like the copper coming thru...check the crank journal and big end of the rod for wear...looks like the bearings got a good score in it also

Use carb cleaner and see if it will rub off. If it does, it's varnish. You can remove varnish if you use the right cleaner and a decent cloth.
Then, check the bearing clearances with Plastigage and if they're in spec put it back together and run it.
It sounds to me like this car sat a LOT and the engine oil got wet and degraded. You need to check all the wear points.

You're going to get all sorts of replies that tell you to go expensive, replace rings, bearings, grind crank, etc. It's easier to throw parts at a motor than to figure out what absolutely needs to be replaced.

Measure everything that you can.
R.