Can you repair damaged solder pads/traces? I think I killed a board!

[Deano]

Is there any way to repair damaged solder pads and traces on a pcb?

My Tonepad Rat never worked and i'd hacked about with it that much that I though it was best to strip it back and start again.

I desoldered all of the components and cleaned the board but it looks like i've damaged some pads.  Is there anything I can do or is it a lost cause?

Pics below:

[GibsonGM]

That's actually not that bad, Deano.  You can use an X-acto knife to (very carefully!) expose some of the existing copper of the traces around the chewed areas and down the 'line' a little.  Then put the part back in, and bend its lead over onto the new copper you just uncovered.  Solder them together and 'voila'!  Just be careful not to pull on the part after its in.   It's more secure if you expose some of the 'line' and include it in the soldering. 

In an extreme case you can also use fine wire (like 22ga.) or component lead to go from part to part if the whole length of a trace is wasted.   I've done this many times with reliable results.   

[drewl]

I have to do this all the time when fixing stuff!
You can run bare wire to replace the missing trace also, and there's different chemicals available like the CircuitWorks Overcoat pen which covers the the bare trace with a non-conductive type material that helps hold things in place that comes off easy with alcohol or other solvents for re-work.

[natalio]

The gibsongb idea is what we technicians do al the time, so go for it!
Anyways, I thins that you are using a soldering iron that is too much power, you have to heat really much to raise up the copper layer.

[Deano]

Natalio: yeah I did this one before I decided to buy a new iron with the proper tip.  I just did a tubescreamer and it came out really well, much neater than the first build I did, hence me wanting to do this one again.

GibsonGM: I'll give that a go!  I'm please I don't need to get a new board, this one took an age to arrive from Tonepad.

[CodeMonk]

The gibsongb idea is what we technicians do al the time, so go for it!
Anyways, I thins that you are using a soldering iron that is too much power, you have to heat really much to raise up the copper layer.

That way works wonders.
I remember many years ago, I had to fix an OLD IBM 5110. This inside of this thing looked like it was built buy a bunch of drunk IBM engineers in some garage. The building it was kept in was hit by lightening (or so we were told). Most of the computer was fine but the PCB of the power supply was half black. Charred beyond belief. I had to replace about half of the traces this way.
Damn thing was insured for $15,000 and the insurance company wanted it repaired so they would not have to pay up. This was back in the days when a 486DX-50 chip was top of the line.