Applications and Challenges of 7075 Aluminum in Racing Parts

In racing, one material always seems to come up in conversations: 7075 aluminum.

It's easy to see why. It offers strength levels close to steel while weighing only about one-third as much.

For teams chasing every bit of performance, that strength-to-weight ratio is a huge advantage. That's why you'll often see 7075 used in suspension parts, control arms, seat brackets, wheel hubs, and other components where both rigidity and lightness matter.

But 7075 is also one of those materials that machine shops have a love–hate relationship with. The high hardness that makes it strong also makes it much harder to machine compared to standard aluminum.

Cutting tools wear out faster, heat builds up quickly during machining, and if you don't control the process carefully you end up with burrs or surface hardening.

Things get even trickier with thin-walled or large components, they have a tendency to warp after machining.

Without the right experience, it's common to see dimensions drift out of tolerance or parts that twist under load once assembled.

And even if you get through machining, the challenges don't stop there. Surface finishing on 7075 can be frustrating.

Because of its higher zinc and copper content, anodizing often results in uneven or blotchy colors, especially in darker shades like black.

On top of that, its corrosion resistance is weaker than 6061, which means parts are more vulnerable in salty or humid environments.

To get around this, we often recommend hard anodizing to boost wear and corrosion resistance, or advanced coatings like MAO/PEO ceramic layers for parts that need to handle long-term heavy loads.

This is why 7075 is really a double-edged sword. On one hand, it delivers incredible strength and weight savings; on the other, it demands much more from both machining and finishing processes.

For a customer, picking 7075 isn't the hard part. The hard part is finding a supplier who knows how to make it work.

At Mastro, we’ve spent years machining 7075 for suspension and performance parts, and along the way we’ve learned how to avoid the common pitfalls and bring out the best of this alloy. If you’re working on a project that needs 7075, we'd be glad to share our experience and help you get a stable, reliable results.