I'm happy to report that I got the generator/regulator combo working and all is charging well.
I took it to an automotive electric shop in rural Missouri, one that was littered with alternators, starters and generators from the past half century, and the guy cleaned up the contact and tested the regulator, reporting that it was putting out 14V as it should.

We then talked about polarizing, wiring, armatures and like.

After having verified the components were wired correctly, the regulator having a good ground to the chassis, the B+ terminal on the regulator was getting 12V from the Battery, and the wires going from generator to regulator were not shorted, I polarized it once more.

*This is important because there's a lot of info on the web, but this is what worked for me, this time:
Regulator and generator are wired up,
touched a lead from B+ tab on the regulator to D+ (51) tab on the regulator just for a second. Spark was visible.

That's all it took. Gen light goes out and battery is getting just over 14V at fast idle.

__________________
63 220S W111
76 300D W115
2013 VW JSW TDI M6

previously-
73 280 SEL 4.5
86 300E 5 speed
2010 VW Jetta TDI M6