Clutch advice needed

I'm slowly getting the 81 Rabbit diesel I bought for my daughter in order- changed the head gasket, rebuilt the rear brakes, changed the rad, new muffler, trying to find some cheap strut inserts (everything else is really reasonable on the car, I hate paying $70 each for inserts) but I have a clutch question. With engine off, the clutch feels fine, nice and smooth. Same in neutral with engine on. Same on the road in neutral. Same when starting from a stop. But when changing gears, the clutch makes a grating noise when depressed and released, and you can feel the pedal grate. Not terrible, but there. Any thoughts? No binding or slipping, and the engagement and gear changes are fine.

The clutch cable is either wearing away and has burs or needs to be lubricated, but I say it is in definate need of repair. That grating sound is most likely the torn cable strands gripping past the hole in the firewall. My cabby does it too, but I don't drive it much so I haven't fixed it yet.