Advise me on E39 suspension

My '98 528i is needing some suspension love. The car is a stick without the sport package. It's got 131k miles, and AFAIK suspension bits are all original. My friend owned it from 2010 until I bought it last April, and I have the service records from when he owned it - no suspension work.

It passed safety inspection ~5k miles ago, but even then it had a pretty good clunk from the front end when going over big bumps- I'm guessing swaybar bushings. Now, it's developed a pretty persistent and annoying front end shimmy/shake that increases with speed and gets even worse when I'm on the brakes...I'm guessing it's time to rebuild the whole front end (and probably put new rotors on as well).

Questions:

1) Everywhere I see everyone says to bite the bullet and pay extra for Lemforder parts. I'm okay with that if it's true that all the other options are, in fact, crap. Just seems like most of the BMW forums are full of "I spent $$$$ and you should be impressed" types. Are there any decent cheap alternatives? (I'm investigating this kit.) If not, where's the cheapest place to get the Lemforder stuff?

2) Will I need to redo the rear end as well? Should I just order a whole-car kit and plan on doing it soon, even though it doesn't need it now?

3) While I'm in there, I'm thinking I'm going to do the struts/shocks and possibly add performance springs as well. The BavAuto kit is the front runner right now...anything I should be considering besides Bilstein Sports?

Try Blunttech. I don't have an e39, but their service is good and their prices are generally as low as any of the BMW parts supply places. http://www.blunttech.com/

Lemforder parts are good quality. A lot of the other brands you see sold on eBay and other places do tend to fail quickly.

I run Koni Sports on the M5. I've not compared them to the Bilsteins, but I've generally found twin-tube Konis to ride better than mono tube Bilsteins. No complaints in this case.

I used Lemforder parts for the front. Haven't done the rear yet.

Meyle is good quality as well. I think a lot of guys just make the mistake of torquing the bolts while the suspension isn't loaded and tear the bushings right away.

IMO, Bilstein Sports are a bit harsh for a daily. I would go Koni FSD instead.