Turned out it was the V/R.
Bought the new V/R from NAPA and it has 3 terminals on one side and a 4th terminal on the underneath / bottom side.
I initially didn't realize the bottom terminal was the GEN terminal and grounded it. I plugged the Armature wire to the L(oad) terminal, the BAT to the BAT and the F(ield) to the F terminal.
When I connected the battery....sparks.
I did some more reading and realized the terminal on the bottom was the GEN. I also realized that this new v/r grounds to the mounting bracket, so I attached the ground wire to the mounting bracket and ground to bare metal just under the mounting bracket for good contact.
After all wires were connected properly - Charging on the ammeter.
Voltmeter to the Armature on the generator read 13.5 V.
turns out the old v/r was in worse shape than I thought - very happy this is charging now -