Soldering advice

[Hornnumb2]

I am not new to soldering as I have been working on arcade boards and chevy cluster for many years but I am new to something this tiny. https://www.shopjimmy.com/samsung-bn94-01628n-main-board-component-repair-kit-for-ln40a530p1fxza.htm.   I sure everybody does have there way of doing this.
1) hot air to remove, solder paste on heat sink for ic and then drag solder the legs OR
2) hot air to remove, clean and add solder back to traces, hot air to set ic back in place?

[tooki]

If not for the thermal pad, I would do (1). Drag soldering is much faster, so less thermal stress on the component, PCB, and nearby components. (And frankly, it’s really easy!) But with the thermal pad there’s no real alternative to reflowing it.

So do (2), but just get proper solder paste. Prepare the pads (do NOT apply pressure while wiping solder wick as instructed in the video! Wick is not supposed to be wiped, just basically dabbed and lifted straight up, so as to not lift pads), clean them very well to remove flux residues, and then add solder paste and reflow. (Don’t melt wire solder onto the pads prior.)