dont stuff around save for a bit longer and buy a 325i..... youll thank yourself latter, they do heaps better skids >
When i was looking for my 205 GTI i waited over a year for a nice one to pop up. the reason being its 17349879040 times easier to start off with a nicer car and make it mint/fast than it is to sart with a shitty car and spending allot of time and money just making it nice.
Talk to Ray as he does collision repairs if need be, or yeah, Pop down to the local PB and see what they have to say.. Sounds exactly the same as what happened to the 7er, straight line, hit a puddle and it was gone
sucks dude.
Damn surprise puddles. Nearly as bad as those wall that jump out at you.
Seriously tho as long as the chassis rails aren't bent it should be straight forward replace parts with second hand units and respray.
Back in 2003 or 4 I had an e38 that McMillan had to put a new cluster in (due to a short totally unrelated to the cluster in the end) it was close to 2k for that (mech warrentee) i did ask them to take some milage off...didn't go down well ☺