Meh idea or bad idea?

[flavo]

I got my car for a decent deal but the more I look at it the more I wish/need the body to be in better shape. This is my 2nd vehicle. I'm in my work truck most of the time. So some down time on it wouldn't kill me. The only thing this car is really lacking for me is no FI. Not having the boost wallop I'm used to in my previous cars has me wanting to save up for a low boost supercharger.
That being said I could save up for body work instead. I brought the car to a very reputable body place and they gave me a quote of $3K which is almost an entire respray and fixing the body imperfections that I'm not going to live with. In reality I'd probably pay a bit more and have the whole thing resprayed. It is OEM quality according to the shop.
So the question is, should I put the money into the body or save the cash, sell the car and buy one for what I'm assuming will be just shy of what I'd have in mine after the body work?
Mine is a mystic blue w/ 130K. I could be OK with probably any color but really do prefer the blue 1st and red 2nd. I paid 8K for mine and it has a decent service history.
Leather heated seats and 6mt are a must.
Plus I dont really want to be without for the possible months that it could take to find the right one after I sold this.
I just don't want to make a stupid mistake I'm not seeing and regret it without getting some sage advice.
Thanks folks!
Mike

[BimmerWill]

That is an interesting conundrum. How much history came with the car when you bought it in regards to maintenance and what all have you done to get maintenance up to par? I can sympathize with the body work but dumping close to 4k in a respray and full body work is a lot of money to put into a car when body work will be half the value of the vehicle. For 12k you could find one in great shape though mystic blue will be a little harder to come by from what I hear.

As far as FI is concerned if you are debating on doing that I would do a leakdown test to get a feel for the condition of the motor. If it's still golden then you could go for it but if not and you boost it you're going to end up with some costly repairs down the road if not sooner.

How long do you plan on helping an e46? Indefinitely or just a few more years until you find something else (factory boosted) or get tired of it.

That kind of money is a big investment in a vehicle if you aren't certain you are going to keep it very long I would caution against it because you won't be able to get that back later on.

I'm sure some others can give you better advice but these were my thoughts. Best of luck with the decision.

[Vas]

Honestly at this point finding a zhp with a perfect condition body will be difficult since the car is over 10 years old. And if you do find one, it will carry a higher price tag.

What is exactly wrong with the body?

If you plan on keeping the car and keeping up with the maintenance, I would have the body work done and fixed.

[stephenkirsh]

I dunno which route to suggest other than keeping the car you have now.

It's not like you CANT go FI and new paint. It might take a while.

[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.

[flavo]

Thanks for all the advice. I had not considered the pressure test at all or what boosting could do to a higher mileage engine. The service history is decent but it still needs the coolant system done and susp refresh done. I'm assuming that any e46 is going to need those items though. I could always get lucky but I don't count on that. I'd love to be one of those guys that will keep this thing forever. It's so classic and I love seeing the older guys cruise around in there mint E30's.
I'm not positive I could do it but I have romantic notions of keeping it for along long time.
As for what the body needs. I new when I got it that the door had a good dent that would come out with PDR and that the hood had a dent that maybe would come out. Then just random dings that are small and a few scrapes/scratches. I did not notice that the front bumper took a bit of a hit until recently as the paint was decent. It looks like the rebar brackets got bent and the bumper is pushed a little off center.
The price quoted was not a full spray and didnt include jams. It was actually $3500 but I thought I would do some of the work myself and bring it to them in a fashion more ready for paint, saving myself some cash.

[cakM3]

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.

^^
This


As for FI...either you do it right or don't do it. That's how I look at it. Either way it's going to cost you plenty of $$$$ to do this right so I would focus on maintenance and slowly upgrade everything on the car :) That is if you are planning to keep the car until the wheels fall off...