Today was the day, so excited we were to move the Cuda and GTO down to the Qwest Center’s Exhibition Hall. Two days were spent going over the cars to make sure they looked great and met the tight Qwest Center vehicle regulations. Of course the major concern was the fuel level in the gas tanks. The GTO was fine, in fact we needed to put some gas in it to get it downtown. However, the Cuda would prove to be more of a challenge.

Having a Holley electric fuel pump greatly eased the pumping of fuel out of the car, which had about a half a tank according to the gage….too easy in fact. I topped off the tank of another car, a ’72 Buick Skylark (she’s a beaut ) and only got the tank down to 3/8. I could not get the blasted thing to go any lower. I am not sure when logic ran out, but I know at least once or twice I thought “hmmmm I wonder if the gage is bad”, these thoughts were probably somewhere between the cotes of Liquid Glass and the McGuiar’s vinyl treatment which took me into the weee hours of the morning. I remember to waking up with the thought “hell ya know, I oughta throw a gas can in the trunk with a few gallons”. 
 
To make a long story longer, Jonathan (my son) and I got the Cuda down to the Qwest Center and met the staff there to check the car over; great people down there by the way. Well, I was told I had to be down to a ¼ tank, that I should try to at least get a little more out. Pumping out was not an option, I decided to drive it off, meanwhile, Braden, would get the GTO loaded in.

So now I’m heading up I-29 “trying” to burn off 1/8 of a tank of gas. Most days this would not be an issue, but after getting the car spotless for the show this was growing disappointing rapidly. The further I got away from civilization, the more I seemed to recall my brother, who owns the car, saying something about the fuel gage some time back. I thought to myself “this is crazy, this gage has got to move soon or it’s definitely bad”; I turned around at Honey Creek, IA and was heading back to Omaha. I began obsessing over the possibility that the gage was bad and indeed I am on borrowed time.

Now something happens to a man when he gets behind the wheel of just such a vehicle, all cylinders of the brain may or may not fire from time to time. Well, I lost a couple cylinders when a late model Monte SS worked his way up next to me. What would you do? Needless to say, the Monte got his doors blown off and as he headed on into North O on 680 I felt manlier than ever, that is until I got the sinking feeling you get when you’re in the middle of nowhere and the engine starts sputtering from lack of go-juice….
 
Two hours after leaving the Qwest Center I re-arrived with about a gallon in the tank. I was able to assure the doorman that I had less than a quarter tank (even though the gage read 3/8 still) by the look on my face alone. The sound of the Cuda as it rumbled into the exhibition hall was exceptional as it finally settled into its temporary resting place. Thank goodness I had the company of my son while we had waited for my wife Kristie to bring us gas.

Lesson(s) learned, but it was totally worth it, the show was a blast. We met hundreds of people and left our mark on Buy the Big O 2005.

Brad Williams
VP of Operations