Originally Posted by
az3579
Look at it this way: there are no truly perfect E46's in your price range. So, in your shoes, I'd rather fix the body 100% as that would cost about the same as another run-of-the-mill ZHP. $3k seems way too low to me as an estimate; does that include the engine bay and door sills?
This way, you'll have a car you know the history of, and will have a perfect body. As far as boosting goes, that can always wait. Personally I wouldn't boost anything with mileage that "high" without getting the engine rebuilt, so you've got time to save up for this if money is a concern. Honestly though the engine really isn't bad, it's not like it's horribly slow, so I'm sure you could wait till you've saved up for the rebuild/FI...
With all that said, you should plan on keeping the car if you carry through with all this, as you'll never get this money back. Ever. If you don't plan on keeping the car for a long time after this, then it's probably best you leave the car alone, sell it, and buy what you want, at least in a financial sense.