I am new to RC's this may have been discussed. What advantages and disadvantages that are associated with aluminum chassis over the stock? Will they hold up to the abuse?

Aluminum = stiffer, much stronger, better handling.

I had one, handled gobs better, and was a lot stronger. I shattered the right side of the chassis by hitting a basketball hoop sideways, so I replaced it with aluminum. Can take tons of abuse, but you will need to switch the screws that connect the front and rear suspensions to bolts, because the screws strip out fairly easily.

The downside is alum bends and is not easily straightened back to true again. Some alloys of alum will break when you try to bend it back. Plastic has some give built in and will bend up to a certain point, plastic is also lighter.

If the chassis is like the FLM one for the Slash, it will let road debris in unless you build some kind of shields to stop the trash. I had this prob with my UE SM and Dace Pred and cut some thin lexan to use as shields.

Thanks for the info. very helpfull.