Olympus OM-1 condition question

First time poster here, looking for some advice on an Olympus OM-1 I recently acquired. I am not well versed in these cameras, and hoping someone more familiar with them might be able to comment.

I was inspecting this new-to-me camera and removed the lens. When looking inside I noticed what looked to me like possible damage to the internals of the camera. The plastic piece under the mirror (highlighted by red arrows in photos)

appears to be pushed down when I assume it should be flush... Is this anything to worry about? Thanks for any help you can provide.

It might look like plastic but it's a thin metal cover that's glued in place. My guess is the problem is the opposite of what you suspect. The left side (when looking at the camera) is not pushed down, rather, the right side has been pulled up. On mine there's

In any case, you're right, it's not in there correctly. If you pull it out, you can see where the glue was and then re-glue it using contact cement or similar. Just don't get any glue on the mechanism.

The gear or sprocket that's jutting out at the bottom should be pretty much covered. I don't know if your camera was disassembled at some point or not, but for fun you could see if the shutter timing gear is lined up properly. With that cover removed and the shutter speed set at 1000, you should see a hole in that sprocket pointing towards the front of the camera.

I don't know how much it would impact the operation of the camera if left as is, but it looks like if it moved much it might end up interfering with the operation of the mirror. Also it's supposed to cover all the reflective metal bits below so you don't have light bouncing around in there.

Thank you very much for the informative reply. You are right, it has slipped up on the right side in the photos, not fallen down to the left as I suspected.

I was able to press it back down in to place. I will check on some of the other things you mentioned. Guess I just need to put a roll of film through it and see what comes out. Thanks again.