That's it, exactly as you described.

I'm not sure I understand the bending the typebar. It litterly is longer than the others. If I bend it, it won't strike correctly. It needs to be shortened, which I find impossible to do. It's as if, when they made the typewriter eons ago, someone got a longer typebar than what they should have for the 's.'  - I've never seen anything like it on any other typewriter ever.

Yes, that's it!

I'm hoping to get something close enough at my local hardware store

Everything else seems to work very nicely.

Except the shift key is always in the down position which makes it type caps all the time.

The spring seems to be missing or ?? underneath. I can see the post - it looks like a screw post and I wonder if I would tighten the screw underneath it ...??

Any help would be great. thanks.

good point.. I could even typecast my responses.. that would be different.

now.. another question.. Its been almost a year since I did any typecasting.. and quite frankly I didn't really write about anything much.. mostly just random ramblings..about nothing really... would it be better to just start posting.. or delete everything and start all over and then of course keep posting more regularly?  I'm leaning on the later.

well the spools are what was on it when I got it.. 
the second picture shows the spool covers laying to the right side of the typewriter on top of the manual that also comes with it.