Ugh.

           I've had a grrrrreat weekend here.  I noticed my wife's
car (95 Toyota Camry) was leaking gasoline and found the source of the
leak to be a rubber hose between two metal fuel lines, when I removed
the hose the metal line leading up to the gas tank was so corroded that
it snapped off.  After browsing these forums, reading my Haynes manual
3109830 times, and a quick trip the local auto parts store I got the
courage up to make the repair myself.  I bought a length of metal brake
line and after a lot of swearing and effort I got it up and around the
gas tank to attach to the fuel pump.  The car is up and running and
better yet, my wife has no idea that I won't point I was thinking I
had killed her car! At this point I am trying to evaluate if I need
further work or if I can go back to football and beer next weekend....

    Here are my concerns and worries:

    1.  The factory installed metal fuel line I broke had some nifty
flaring on the ends of the pipe, one was a little more than an inch in
and seemed to be a "stop" or visual clue for how far the hose
should over lap the pipe, the other flare was at the opening and I'm
guessing was designed to help prevent leaks.  The brake like I used to
replace it had none of these nifty little bumps and flares.....  are
these huge preventative designed to the point that their absence should
make me question the durability of my handiwork?  My Haynes manual has
a cut away picture of this type of piping with the two flares and has
specific dimensions as to how much should over lap and where the clamp
should be... the preciseness of their drawing and the impreciseness of
what I actually did on the repair are making me worry.  The guy at the
auto shop telling me that I would be able to make the repair with the
brake line he was selling me even without the flares made me a little
nervous as well...

    2.   In replacing this line I also reattached two sections of rubber
hose, one up by the fuel pump and one down below where the original
leak was.  I'm relatively new to the auto motive do-it-yourself game,
the biggest project I have tackled to date was replacing a set of rear
struts, and I'm concerned (can you tell I like to worry?!?) that I
didn't put the hoses on tight enough.  Here is one test I was
tinkering with, when I was playing with attaching the hose to a length
of metal tubing, even with the clamp screwed on as tight as I could get
it I could still pull on the rubber hosing and make it slowly slide off
the metal tubing.... Should that have happened?  I seem to recall
thinking of hose clamps as something that should not be tightened as
hard as possible or they will fail prematurely....? Yes? No? maybe so?
On the same subject the clamps I removed were a sort of quick release
Toyota clamp with no adjustment possible, can you reuse these clamps?
It seems like over time the metal wouldn't grip as tightly as the day
it rolled off the assembly line.  Are the adjustable screw clamps
better?

    3.  How much should the hose be overlapped onto the metal piping?
Toyota has the second flare/bump about an inch and a half on the pipe,
but one of my connections I can only manage a one inch over lap, which
leaves me a good half inch short of their "stop" bump.

    4.  How much pressure am I dealing with in the fuel lines?  Is it high
enough to cause a rubber hose to fly off and gas to spew all over the
place?  Along the same thread, would some sort of pressure check on the
fuel system give me an idea of how durable my repair will (or won't)
be?  Am I literally ( no pun intended) playing with fire here?

    5.  And finally, I am considering going to the dealer and buying a
replacement part for the metal tubing section since it would be bent
correctly and it would have the proper flares already on it.  My
concern is that if I bought this replacement section that I would have
to drop the gas tank to install this oddly bent section of pipe, does
anyone have any experience here?  The metal tubing I currently have on
the car was a PAIN in the rear to work into the tight space.  Anyone
have any experience here?

    Lastly, I heartfelt thank you to this forum for helping me get my car
up and running at a point when things looked pretty darn bleak.  Now I
am hoping for a little bit more help and guidance.

                        Sincerely,

                            Blake18