Hey Donny !!
Those new bearings "must be fitted prior" to the reel grind being done. There's no point in using flogged out bearings for the grinding work to be done with and then you change the bearings, that will give you a different base line level to work from and you'll struggle to have a straight freshly ground surface on the reel and then alignment will be impossible to obtain.
If your engineer is going to do the job with the old bearings still in place then I'd find a better engineer as that one has no idea as to what he's doing and is probably using very substandard machinery as well.
If you're going to spend the money and do the job correctly, you might as well do it once and right rather than do it wrong and twice.
Cheers,
BB.
