How do I go about getting copies of viruses or malware for research?
I want to be able to create my own offline zoo to learn more.
I know that I can grab files out of a quarantine directory, the problem is that gateway A/V scanning is stripping most files before they are getting to my pc so I'm limited. The gateway admins are not willing to quarantine on that system.

you won't find them here

You won't find many people willing to share virus samples. Other malware, perhaps. The adware/spyware variety is more easily found since it installs via the web. A place to start is on the web helper forums like wilders security that people post hijackthis logs, which sometimes indicate where the files were downloaded from.

If you are genuinely interested in collecting the popular email worms, setup a mail account on a server which does not filter for spam or viruses, and unsubscribe from lots of spam messages with the new email address, you will find yourself getting new spam and hopefully viruses in the near future.