Seagoon, I DID have that happen to me. Friend of mine had someone dump sugar in his gastank, and he decided rather than try to fix it he'd buy a new car. So he GAVE me the old one. I dropped the gas tank and cleaned it, unhooked the fuel line at the carb. end and squirted it out with some alcohol under pressure. Rebuilt the carburetor, cleaned the spark plugs, etc. Here's the fun part.
It was an early 80's GM, and had the metal fuel line up to the carb with the filter inside the carb and a flare fiting connecting the line to the filter casing. The line fitting was darn near welded on, and we ended up twisting the metal fuel line so badly that it was restrictive and had to be cut off. No one had a replacement available, and I was needing to get the car moved ASAP. So I went against my better judgement and made my own temporary fuel line out of some high pressure rubber hose. I cut the twisted part out of the metal line, flared each end, and then worked some rubber fuel line over the flares and put hose clamps behind the flares, hoping that would hold the pressure long enough to get me home. I guess my flares werent even. I started and ran the car, didnt see any leaks, so I started home. 15 miles into a 36 mile trip, someone drove up beside me blaring their horn and leaning out the window. I rolled down my own window, and they were yelling the car was on fire. I had a trail of flame coming out the back of the car and didnt know it. I pulled it over and ran for the ditch. The fire dept was only a couple minutes behind me, having been called by someone else, but they couldnt do much. I watched the front tires explode, the battery explode, and expected the rest of the car to go up any time but then they finally got the fire under control. The battery explosion blew the hood open and they were able to get the water on the fire itself.
Joy. I dont try to manufacture fuel line fittings anymore.
