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MG MGA - 'Watt' size soldering iron?

I recently fitted some new rear light units to my car and I planned to solder the earth connection to to the metal body of the unit rather than depend on the standard bullet connectors.
I did attempt to do this but my old 20 watt soldering iron just didnt have the power to get the solder to run.
I found this out the hard way as a large blob of solder fell onto my bare leg! (Bad idea to do any soldering whilst wearing shorts!)

Can anyone advise me if an electric soldering iron could do this and what sort of wattage would it need to be?
Cheers
Colyn


Colyn Firth

MGA porn now Colyn!
Gary Lock

Colin - I would seriously suggest that you drop the idea of soldering a wire to a ground spot on the car - it is not very easy to get a good connection and you might injure your self with a drop of unforgiving hot solder on some bare spot on your body - oh yes, you have already done so. Instead find a good spot on the frame with a bolt on it, clean the spot and the bolt head down to shiny metal, coat all of the shiny metal with a heavy coat of copper or graphite impregnated in a grease. Crimp a ring terminal to the wire and bolt it to the treated area of the frame. I used this procedure for all the ground connections on our TD when I restored it (late 70s) and have not had any problems since then. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

Never thought of it like that Gary,next thing the webmaster will be banning me!😁
To be honest, prising that 1/2" blob of molten solder off my leg wasnt the most fun experience i have ever had😊.

Dave, I was trying to solder the wire onto the metal side of the lamp unit and not the car chassis. I think I would have needed an oxy/acetaline welding set for that.

I did manage to solder the wire onto the bullet connector but I have found those connectors to be unreliable over the years.

Colyn

Colyn Firth

Colyn
Surely cheaper to buy long trousers/jeans?
Graham
Graham V

Graham, on that occasion, I definitely learned the lesson of either wearing long trousers or, even more sensibly, making sure that there is no uncovered skin anywhere near a hot soldering iron!😊.

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn, I bought a gas soldering iron for these jobs.
Dan Smithers

Colyn

I guess doing your car maintenance in the buff saves on the laundry. I trust you were in the garage and not the kerbside.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Hi Colyn,

Reading your post it occurred to me I had the same trouble whilst doing a similar thing with my Scimitar lights - until I realized that the lamp holder I was trying to solder to, had some kind of anodized protection on the metal. A quick rub over with emery cleaned off the anodizing and getting the solder to flow was so much easier.......Just a thought ;-)

Regards,
Phil
T Gee

Phil

As you say, clean, bare metal always helps. I always rub the metal/wire etc with fine emery first. Then, regardless of whether I am using integrated flux in the solder or not I always dab a bit of flux separately on both surfaces to be soldered. I guess I learned it the hard way many years ago when trying to solder 15mm copper water pipe. Total disaster until I went through the cleaning and fluxing process. Never had a bad joint since.

In summary, always clean and always flux.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Just beware too much flux creating a dry joint. It can be overdone - not good for electrical circuits. Lots of abrasion (emery, etc) is good though, and then solder as soon as possible before dulling and oxidation undoes all the good work.
Bruce.
B Mayo

This thread was discussed between 14/09/2017 and 23/09/2017

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