The effects of Cu and Fe additions on the thermal stability, microstructure and mechanical properties of $Al_{85}-Ni_{8.5}-Mm_{6.5},;Al_{84}-Ni_{8.5}-Mm_{6.5}Cu_1,;Al_{84}-Ni_{8.5}-M_{m6.5}Fe_1$ alloys, manufactured by gas atomization, degassing and hot-extrusion were investigated. Gas atomization, with a wide super-cooled liquid region, allowed the alloy powders to exhibit varying microstructure depending primarily on the powder size and composition. Al hotextruded alloys consisted of homogeneously-distributed fine-grained fcc-Al matrix and intermetallic compounds. A substitution of 1 at.% Al by Cu increased the thermal stability of the amorphous phase and produced alloy microstructure with smaller fcc-Al grains. On the other hand, the same substitution of 1 at.% Al by Fe decreased the stability of the amorphous phase and produced larger fcc-Al grains. The formation of intermetallic compounds such as $Al_3Ni,;Al_{11}Ce_3;and;Al_{11}La_3$ was suppressed by the addition of Cu or Fe. Among the three alloys examined, the highest Vickers hardness and compressive strength were obtained for $Al_{84}-Ni_{8.5}-M_{m6.5}Cu_1$ alloy, and related to the finest fcc-Al grain size attained from increased thermal stability with Cu addition.