68 bird 400 timing marks at 12 and 12 engine not starting help!

Hello
I got a ragtop 68 bird with a  400 that sat for 15 years i had it running once or twice but now I cant get it to start. I replaced almost everything, plugs wires dist, coil, qjet,..., I was going to replace the points with an electronic unit but somehow it got fried and I went back to points. Putting the dist back in I brought up the number one to TDC on compression got spark and fuel but its not starting.
I finally pulled the timing cover and found the timing marks at 12 on the cam and 12 on the crank!
Doing a bit of searching here I found someone saying the timing should be at the number 6 plug not the number one.
any ideas or comments would be really helpful!
thanks
Steve  

With the timing marks both at 12 o'clock you are at #1 TDC. If you now rotate the crankshaft 360 degrees the crank timing mark will be at 12 and the cam timing mark will be at 6 because the cam rotates at half the crank speed. This is #6 TDC. You could install the cam in either position and still be correct, (the same). Just make sure the distributor rotor is pointing at #1 plug wire when both timing marks are at 12 o'clock.

Dave  

For all your timing questions check out the following website set up by the folks at MSD. Copy and paste the following into your web browser:

http://www.setyourtiming.com/

Hope this helps you out.  
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Frank the Crank
www.amberlightgarage.com

Dave thanks for the reply. Just to make this perfectly clear, once everything is back together all I have to do is bring the number six cylinder to TDC on the compression stroke and set my dist to 6 rather than one?
If this works I owe you a cold one!
Thanks
Steve  

That would be correct.  Its not uncommon two get distributors 180 degrees out of phase.

Dave