Hello and welcome to the forum, same thing with me, they haunt you for years.
1 Yes, quite easy to do but tedious.
2 Sounds about right.
3 Probably the linkage bushes shot as you say or a mis alignment on the relay shaft, a cheap but tedious fix.
More important than anything mechanical, beware of rust, this can hide in many places, a Mk2 can look mint yet be a rotten mot nightmare, believe me, I've been caught out before. Run a search, there is a Mk2 buying guide link on here somewhere which covers most points.