I tell ya, old age is a bitch, no lights in storage and it's overcast so not much light - figured I'd go over one more time and check that fusible link, again it looked ok, took a look at negative terminal, I had forgotten to remove the protective cap being that it was black - removed cap, hooked it all up and I got to hear the sweet sound of my Z again... 
Almost done with all my projects, during this I believe I had accidently left the stereo on while working on the car and drained the battery. No biggie, when I'm ready to fire up the car figured I'd get a new one.
Put a new battery in this morning, put on negative, go to put on positive side and figured I'd get a little spark with all the electronics in car - nothing.
Tighten up the connections and dead as a door nail, no lights, again nothing. I looked at the fusible link at the positive terminal and that looked ok, anything else to look for? Hoping the new battery just isn't dead also...
Did do a search but mostly getting hits with keyfobs and resets.