Thing is I haven't seen a mk2 in a salvage yard with any useful plastic, rubber or vinyl parts since the 1990s. Most were completely ravaged by the Texas sun already anyway and if it wasn't they'd leave the windows down, doors open and sunroof open. Then people would take parts off to access the cylinder head and just throw the exhaust manifolds, distributors, etc. inside onto the passenger seat. By the time I saw one in a salvage yard, the interior would be destroyed.
Plus there was very little demand. A mk2 would be slowly picked at. When I called salvage yards asking for mk2s they would tell me that they would rather crush a mk2 than let it take up valuable space that they could make a lot of money on quickly like a Honda Accorde. The lack of viable mk2s in salvage was what prompted me to start buying wrecked ones and parting them out myself figuring that would be the best way to keep those parts from being wasted.
By about 2005 though, I had a storage building quite full and what few mk2s were showing up in the auctions were in such bad shape they weren't worth the cost to transport them home, let alone the time to dismantle them. You guys wouldn't buy hard parts from me like an alternator with 250K miles on it of course, you wanted stuff like belt moldings and center consoles. So I quit parting them out after 2005.
I still watch craigslist, but what I'm not seeing anymore is WRECKs, mk2s that were in decent shape, being driven and enjoyed and just fell victim to a terminal accident. That's what I look for. It seems that now, the majority of survivors are either already being treated as collector cars, lightly driven on weekends OR most probably I would bet that 8 out of 10 of them are in storage, sitting in someone's garage, under a tarp with boxes piled on top of them, kids bicycles leaning on them, haven't been started in years, awaiting that "someday I'm going to restore it".
I think the prime age for mk2 collectors is 50 to 58. Given the economy, most guys age 50 are still working 50 hours a week so give the mk2 another five to ten years and we'll start seeing them come out of the woodworks. But if between now and then, our OP could perfect some 3D files, then they'd probably have nice little hobby-business on the side. I know it works in the Corvette world. There's certain people that everyone knows you send your dash clocks to this guy who just rebuilds Corvette dash clocks and there's even a guy who just does Corvette windshield wiper arms. They figured out how to restore one particular part, built the jigs and special tools and made a little side business out of it to supplement their retirement income. I'm sure they don't make enough to live on but its better than waiting on a social security check.