It turns out that the reason why I was having problems with cylinder #1 was because my valves weren't seating properly. I took the cylinder heads to a local machine shop, and they told me that heads were actually warped! I'm not sure how that happened, but while I'm waiting for them to come back, I needed something else to work on.
When painting the sides of the fuselage, I did not mask the bottom well enough to prevent any overspray. I figured hardly anyone would ever see the bottom of the fuselage, so I wasn't going to worry about it for now, but since I'm still waiting for my cylinder heads to come back from the repair shop, I decided to go ahead and tackle it anyway. Simple rubbing compound and an air-powered foam pad worked great!
Total Time: 12.75 hrs.