Good news, the kit came in yesterday, finished installing it late last night. I made sure I gave the alternator plenty of "service" slack to minimize the amount of movement; I have the ring connector facing straight to the floor w/ a 6" radius before it makes it's way to the frame. Prior to that the ring connector was at a 3 or 9 o'clock position and barely and 'some' slack to what I felt should have been ok (guess not). And I'm up to 6ga. wire instead of 8 ga. While 8 ga. should have been enough, the 6ga. wire IMO is stronger because the individual strands are much thicker; something more akin to that of battery wire - the original wire that came with my I-Squared kit looks more like something I'd use for stereo equipment. It's not a stretch to think the thin strands would fatigue much quicker Here's a picture of both cables.
When I got home, the car started right up! Seeing a good 14.3v.
Will probably drive it to work tomorrow to charge up the battery some.