Straighten LCA's?

[the_engineers]

So all of the activity around bent lower control arms (especially the passenger side ones) has me wondering...Can they be straightened?

Seems like most are bent where the ball joint mount is riveted to the stamped halves.  Will this stress the rivets if you press everything back into place?

[HP2]

I forget all the metalurgy around it all, so I may be off a bit, but to some effect, bending it back creates work hardened area which can create embrittlement, which can lead to a potential failure point under stress. At what level of stress or at what failure point, I couldn't say. Or something like that. My brain hurts today, so I'm a bit fuzzy on it.

[the_engineers]

What about adding heat to the mix?  Typically, heat will relax the metal structure enough to prevent "some" work-hardening.  Also, it's not like I plan to move this thing more than once...