Rob - My tank has a couple of large baffles, as seen in the picture above, so you cant see the end of the pipe. Good to know there is no strainer.
Richie - I'll be ordering some of that for when I strip the car to change all the suspension. Sounds like the same stuff Matt described.
Got it all back together today and used a vac pump to clean the last of the debri from the lines until the petrol was completely clear. Then used the same mityvac pump to prime the entire fuel system as the pump refused to pickup fuel from the tank. Car still wouldn't start so spent another hour or so on the carbs, getting the float levels as close to 10mm down as I could. Put it all back together with confidence to would now go. Took a while to get it running, first on 3 then to front carb stated working so went to all 6. Then the front float bowl started overflowing with the valve stuck. I really could do with a working set of carbs!!