The absolute WORST soldering job I have seen was from the stone age and was made in Chicago of all places. Mind you I am a fan of Hallicrafters, but this S-19R looked like someone flung solder at it from 20 paces. Not only that some of the terminals had so much solder on them and were cold joints I am amazed it even worked! And it had been untouched I am sure as all of the original components were there, dogbone resisters you name it. I probably had to redo well over half of the joints. What a pain for such a mediocre radio...
So much for quality in America. I suppose even then it was a fallacy. Especially for cheap stuff built to a price point.
On a positive note I think it lost a good half pound or so from all the excess solder I removed. I have seen Heathkits where people didn't know what they were doing look better then this thing....