I picked up this '97 328i for DIRT cheap with a destroyed wheel bearing and questionable water pump. The previous owner was a complete slob and hoarder - pulled out 3 large kitchen garbage bags of trash and spent 30 hours disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling before I could even stand to look at the car lol!
Spent about $500 on mechanical & maintenance parts to get it going: water pump, thermostat, wheel bearing & hub, rotors & pads, shifter bushing, intake filter, cabin filter, and changed to synthetic oil. The front ball joints are shot so bought two brand new front LCA's and poly bushings then replaced the RTAB's with AKG race poly bushings (http://www.akgmotorsport.com/) making it a totally different car! Bought a used set of M3 sway bars but haven't installed them yet, that will be done when I install the LSD that's wasting space in storage.
I picked the car up with ridiculous clear corners, a chrome e-brake handle, and white face gauges so the first cosmetic changes were to put them back to stock. I then replaced the decaying or broken trim with all brand new parts: windshield cowl, exterior door handle trim, front license plate delete moulding, one fog light, and a bumper grill. The grills only come in grey so while painting it black I sprayed the kidneys as well to hide the chrome!
Still tons of work to be done and despite how it looks in the pics it desperately needs a fresh coat of paint! It needs window tint bad too - thinking 35% on the sides and rear and using a 70% ceramic on the windshield. Will probably replace the door trim with the sleeker M-moulding and debating on going with the M-bumper or not...there aren't really any good options for a lip kit on the non-m bumpers. I have an idea but it will cost more than just buying a new M-bumper so we'll see!
Here's what it looked like 100% stock before replacing the broken front grill and mounting the BBS Style 29 5-series wheels...and after about 10 hours of paint care!
Performance wise, I have a 8.5lb aluminum flywheel to go in it to replace the stock 29lb...yeah 29 lbs!! Just need to find a good deal on an M5 clutch kit first. Also have a 6-piston Brembo brake setup with 14.6" rotor I want to mount but have to wait for the right set of 18" wheels to magically appear! Then it will need coil-overs....and a GT35R to validate the bigger brakes lol!