Help Oldschool 1980 528i - Fuel problems

[HIOBMW]

I really don't know BMW systems very well, but do my own work on my 951. I got a car from a friend for my kid. It had contamination in the gas tank that would cause the fuel filter to clog after about 5 miles. We changed a filter and drove it home. Dropped the tank, pressure washed it out, and rinsed out all the crud. let it dry in the hot sun for a day and proceeded to put it back together. pretty uneventful except my boy cut the 3 vapor hoses on the tank by the filler neck and we used splices to put them back together.

Went to start the car and no dice. It will run on starting fluid, so i cracked the fuel line at the regulator and found no pressure. pulled the pump and it checked out good.

I'm wondering if there is some type of regulation that we may have screwed up when the 3 lines were cut. It's possible I didn't get the 3 lines back exactly right. Or what else should I check? I did pull the line prior to the regulator. at the manifold. ????