A Few Minutes With The Merc

Well actually a couple of hours as today was sunny and above normal temperatures. That means high 30s and it felt positively warm compared to some days in the recent past. 

After putting in a tractor battery and rigging up a jumper wire to activate the starter I was able to run a compression test on all cylinders. Started out with only two cylinders having compression but by quitting time I was up to seven so it was a good day. I shot some video of course but it is not included in this video I present here. This one covers the retrieval from "out of the woods" with a few vintage still photos thrown in to show how good it used to look, (and still might if I had stored it indoors 30 years ago). 

Made a little progress on the 39 Deluxe earlier this week getting the drain plug out of the gas tank and draining it. I was a little unprepared for how easy the plug spun out with the impact wrench and dumped about a gallon of 30 something year old gas on the floor. The shop reeks and likely will for a few days yet. On the plus side that gas has the volatility of water so it is not a safety risk.
I will close with a photo of another "restoration candidate" I shot earlier this week. Do I really need another project?