This sounds a little backwards to be as a good way to ease yourself into the team. I'd have been inclined to say someting about how many times strictures had saved me untold time and embarasement in the past and would it be ok to add them through out the code base - "I'll fix any problems that show up as I add them".

Same sort of thing with the poorly structured code - "I don't quite see what's going on here" (to the original author), then: "Oh, now I see, but would it be better like this? Is it ok if I make similar changes elsewhere to improve maintainability of the code?".

I'd watch out making cosmetic changes that only affect layout unless the original layout was inconsistent. There's nothing that stirs up wrath more than having someone come and "fix" your carefully laid out code! One thing that may help is running the code through a pretty printer - just to make the layout consistent of course. :)