Finally have some pictures! As you will see, it hadn't been cleaned years, possibly decades.
I wiped down the interior and cleaned the jams. There was dirty from leafs and stuff decomposed after being in there so long. Interior is not the worst, but the carpet is probably not savable. The plastic panels are pretty severely sunfaded as well.
After a good wash, I took out the buffer and attacked the paint on this thing. The shine came back pretty nice, but now you see all the hale damage and scratches. O well, I'll polish the turd the best I can. I only got the hood done today, just wanted to see how well it would come back.
Compared to the way the rest of the paint looks.
The wheel wells don't have a spot of rust, amazing!
Ordered a bunch of parts from RockAuto last night so those should be here fairly soon. I'll keep tinkering on it and the sedan when I can. I'm considering trying to grab a door and hood from another hatch shell that is stripped and for sale on CL. The door is pretty well messed up on this one.
I spared you the under hood pictures, it is looking horrible under there.
Another thing I notice on this Colt, it is as base a model as you could get I'd imagine. No 12v outlet inside, no rear wiper, no door speakers and no rear speakers or even a rear decklid. I'm wondering if it still has the wiring for door and rear speakers and such or if they use a different harness depending on the model.