Not trying to be disrespectful or anything Luke. I'm sure with your experience you crimp one hell of a connection that will last plenty of years. However, you seem very against the use of solder in the car environment, which is weird to me. Even going so far to say that you would not warranty a soldered connection.
I too was an installer for 8+years in the San Francisco Bay Area. My grandfather used to own a speaker and amp manufacturing facility since 1949 so I too am legacy in the automotive world. I've been soldering since I was a child so realistically my experience is more close to 20+ years but I only list my actual professional experience.
Additionally, you should realize that many BMW owners, including e30 owners are also professional technicians, installers, and engineers. Everyday I work with engineers with literally 50+ years experience (old guys near retirement) and they laugh at anyone who talks about crimping connections.
So its safe to say that I've worked on thousands of cars and installed thousands of alarms and components. I've only had to repair a handful of solder connections throughout my career but had to repair hundreds of crimped connections. These repairs are all repairs from other shops, so with that said. It seems to me, statistically, with an average installer, a soldered connection will outlast crimped connections.
I have soldered wires in many vintage and classic cars and never once had a problem soldering wires that are corroded. A good solder joint requires prep work in cleaning and preparing for the wires to have soldered applied by used of cleaning and additional flux. Besides, you don't solder heavily corroded wires, you replace them.
Now with a heavily experienced installer such as yourself and myself, we can go crimped or soldered and it will outlast the life of the car itself.
I too was an installer for 8+years in the San Francisco Bay Area. My grandfather used to own a speaker and amp manufacturing facility since 1949 so I too am legacy in the automotive world. I've been soldering since I was a child so realistically my experience is more close to 20+ years but I only list my actual professional experience.
Additionally, you should realize that many BMW owners, including e30 owners are also professional technicians, installers, and engineers. Everyday I work with engineers with literally 50+ years experience (old guys near retirement) and they laugh at anyone who talks about crimping connections.
So its safe to say that I've worked on thousands of cars and installed thousands of alarms and components. I've only had to repair a handful of solder connections throughout my career but had to repair hundreds of crimped connections. These repairs are all repairs from other shops, so with that said. It seems to me, statistically, with an average installer, a soldered connection will outlast crimped connections.
I have soldered wires in many vintage and classic cars and never once had a problem soldering wires that are corroded. A good solder joint requires prep work in cleaning and preparing for the wires to have soldered applied by used of cleaning and additional flux. Besides, you don't solder heavily corroded wires, you replace them.
Now with a heavily experienced installer such as yourself and myself, we can go crimped or soldered and it will outlast the life of the car itself.
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