Ok -- here it is just a couple of days b4 heading to Bend and I put my center console back together after working on the radio.  I get everything back together and fire the car up.  No pressure on the oil gauge!  Oh, wait a minute here it comes -- 15# and a lot gurgling.  Somehow I have not attached the oil line to the gauge properly -- I got oil on the drivers side of the car and probably throughout the console !  Is there a trick that I missed in the attachment?  The line was firmly attached when the console was put back together.  Tomorrow I shall take the dash apart and see what there is to see and clean up my own version of BP.  Any ideas are appreciated.

Does your's have a plastic line, or metal(aluminuminum or copper)? The plastic lines are prone to break as they age, and any movement of it can crack it. If it is a metal line, you may have not gotten the fitting tight, or it may have inserted into the gauge crooked, and is not letting the ferrel seat properly.
If you line IS plastic, and it is the original, I'd certainly suggest replacing the line with a new one, preferably with copper, but a new nylon/plastic will work too.
Sorry to hear about the mess under the dash. If it makes ya feel any better, you're not the first one to go thru it, and certainly won't be the last! Get the Simple Green out, and start soakin!!

Thanks for the info -- the line is copper so in all likelihood I didn't get it seated.  The simple green is flowing freely