David ... if it still has it, a good place to start might be getting rid of the free play before the clutch pedal hardens up ... a culprit can be the clevis pin where the pedal meets the linkage .... they can wear alarmingly over the years and lose you a lot of clutch travel ... they're not hard to replace (as long as you're able to contort yourself under the dash!🙂) ... and only pennies .... if it's not that then there's adjustment via the threaded end of the rod behind the pedal (nut and locknut and more contortion! 🙂) ... worth trying those first as they're free/cheap.
Beyond that one of the +8 guys will be along soon enough to advise.
One silly thing, as the car is new to you, is that they have a surprising amount of legroom so the pedals are way down there ... when I first got mine (and coming from driving more modern cars for a while) I found I wasn't pushing the pedal all the way down during gear changes .... just a thought.
Good luck
K
