Thanks for all replies. I've gone with replacing the 2 piece front hose arrangement to a single hose from caliper to inner wing. The front turned out to be the easiest to do after all of this hassle though....
When attacking the rear hoses all of the Ford solid pipe either twisted, snapped, bent or required grinding to remove nuts etc! Plenty of new brake pipe being made up for my cossie methinks before it's back on the road!
Ah well, the joys of old cars!

cheeRS