If that VW club doesn’t mind kit cars, then by all means you should join. I’ll bet there is a wealth of VW knowledge in that club.
Used to be true that the Carlisle Import/Kit Replicar Nationals had many VW vendors that showed up to peddle their wares. The last show I attended a few years ago had only a couple VW vendors. Seems that most of the kit cars being built today, with the lone exceptions of the Porsche 356 and Spyder variants, do not require VW parts. So, these guys are pretty much suppliers for VW’s and those of us with older VW based kits. No exactly a hot market!
There was a really well built Subaru powered 356 replica at Carlisle a few years ago. Much more driver friendly than an air cooled VW.
The VW aftermarket used to include the off-road buggy guys, and they are few and far between now too. Most of these cars are now powered by water cooled power from Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Chevy, etc.
There is a local shop, German Auto Repair, that has a ’69 standard bug for sale…I keep wanting to stop and look at it! But I have too much stuff already