Choke thermostat /RAGE

Was on the car most of the day today. After installing the new gaskets I decided to pull everything and start from scratch. Every hose, fitting, plug, you name it I took it out of the engine compartment and cleaned or replaced it.

Pulled the dist. checked the point gap. Used a home made piston stop and found exactly where TDC was (I had never done this before and I'm sure I was off a few teeth).

Sanded off the connections on the wires that lead to the coil and alt. Plugged everything back in. Jumped in and placed the key and lo and behold she started up within a few seconds. Took off with amazing power. Stops and runs fantastic. No stutter or stall, no dimming of lights.

I am glad to have her back healthy and running like a champ. Thank you everyone for all the help. I'm thinking that there was a combination of a lot of small things that were wrong. Mostly really dirty/corroded wires, tubes, and the like.