Nice write-up! I had one of those a couple years ago for a back up when I ran out of Co2. The wiring shorted out the second time I used it and I had to rewire it like you did (I also tore mine all apart for the hell of it). It's an okay compressor if you have smaller tires and your not airing down super low, but it's real slow if you have larger tires. It would take almost 20 minutes to air up one of my 35x12.50x15 from 8 psi to 30 psi.

Also, you will eventually want to get rid of the air hose and chuck that comes with the compressor. It drove me crazy and the chuck never seemed to work right, I would install a standard coupler and air hose (like you talked about) with a nice clip on air chuck.