Hello!

  M> There are solder points ...unless you have fairly elaborate
   > soldering equipment I wouldn't suggest trying to solder one in.
   > (Except possibly if you break it up and do one pin at a time, or
   > if you have desoldering equipment good enough to empty the vias.)

I've used some pretty expensive desoldering equipment in the past, but
my favorite for pin-through-hole work is an inexpensive spring-loaded
desoldering pump ('solder-sucker').  I'm quite comfortable working on
multi-layer logic boards.

  M> At one of my past workplaces we had a piece of ribbon cable one
   > conductor of which had heated enough to melt the plastic before
   > fusing open.

I remember some of the first multi-user microcomputers I worked on
were notorious for the 'blue flame' that would apparently shoot down
the ribbon cable if you hooked it up back-to-front. Thankfully I never
tried that, but I saw one cable 'cook' when it was hooked one position
to the side of where it should have been.

Regards,
  - Andy.