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My grandpa and i made a nice aluminum skidplate for my rc10 from a piece of aluminum he had laying arround in his garage. It only has one problem- the aluminum is too soft. Does anyone know how to harden soft/ bendy aluminum? I have it all set up the way i want it but just need it hardened. As you can see i will paint both red, the tub is orriginal, and was badly beat up, and was painted black last which i took off with break fluid. I really badly need the skid plate hardened, i tried heating it up and dipping in motor oil, but it didnt work. I might not have heated it up enough with my propain torch.

oh yeah- i almost forgot. Im thinking this is kinda hopeless so if any of you have a spair skid plate for a gold tub- preferably a little scraped up, maybe a bad coat of paint, bent/ twisted that you probably will never use- whatever im willing to buy ~$10.

I don't think it will get much stronger with heat treating. You need to use a stronger alloy to begin with like 6061-T6 which I think is what AE used. Anyway for $10 you could probably get a piece big enough to make a few nose plates if there's anywhere near you to buy the stuff.

Bugle wrote:I don't think it will get much stronger with heat treating.

Aluminum also has the tendency to move and/or shrink when heat treated.

dude pm me your addy and i'll send you one for free. it sometimes takes me awhile to ship something, but hey, free is free.

you and your grandpa should be tinkering with the more fun stuff anyway.

it may be too soft, but thats a pretty darn good job on a homebrew noseplate...