[Oldsguy]

Welcome to the site and congratulations on getting your car! Yes, you are right that the fuel lines are usually a flare type fitting and the friction of the flared end of the line itself against carburetor or junction block seals and prevents fluid leaks. First off, it would be good if you sprayed all the fittings with a little break free solution, PB Blaster or something like that, or even some WD40. Give it about fifteen minutes or so to soak in a little before working on it. I would also recommend that you get some wrenches made for that purpose, they look similar to open end wrenches but the open end closes about ten to fifteen degrees farther on each side. This prevents the wrench from slipping on directly over the nut from the side so you have to insert the wrench over the line and come down on top of the nut similar to the way you would with a socket. This provides more clamping force and prevents the wrench from slipping and rounding out the nut. They are also used on brakes lines so a couple are good to have, say 3/8 - 7/16 combo, 1/2 - 9/16 combo. You might need a large one for the nut on the carburetor. As you said that is a strange looking setup that Rochester used, on many of their carbs it looks sort of like a barrel about 3/4 inch long and in fact houses an integral filter which was usually some kind of porous metal compound like bronze. At any rate, you need to be sure to support both the nut and whatever you are trying to loosen or tighten it to. I would recommend you loosen and remove everything first to be sure there is no damage, and in case of the fuel inlet you can replace the filter. Then, after that you can re-assemble everything and tighten it up so it doensn't leak. I hope I didn't miss anything or get it wrong. It's one of those things I have done many, many times but never thought about it so hope it was explained correctly. Ohters may post later today and make any corrections to things missed. Anyway, good luck.