Took the beemer into the garage near my work, for a bit of a checkover. Turns out the car is in reasonable condition! Clutch has definately gone, this I deduced on the way back by flooring it and watching the revs rise, but speedo staying the same! Apparently the whine is from the diff but the oil is good so provided I can live with the noise for now there's no alarm. Even the engine is sound too!
So quite happy with that. Now it's on to jobs I can do, and I'll start with some rust and that scrape. This needs a new section, so all my cockups and success will be in there.
Reasonably happy!