Hah... I have been slowly working on an E30 325... I've found things to be quite economical! I got all new brakes, timing belt kit, valve cover seals and shocks... I even did the typical Euro owner thing and went brand name Continental/Bosch/KYB for that stuff... and it was like $450 all-in from Rockauto.
Picked up OEM bottlecap wheels with brand new tires for $300 on Craigslist and dumped the big fake 17" wheels that were on it for $350... the seller of the OEM bottlecaps was a super helpful and nice guy to talk to as well.
So far my E30 experience has been pretty great! Just some riff raff like westopher that you have to put up with
