With a timing light, crank the motor over by hand until #1 fires. Then look at where the motor is. First, look at the timing marks on the crank pulley. Anywhere remotely in the ballpark is good enough to get more than a few random pops. Something like 10 degrees BTDC?

If that is correct, next check to see if you have everything 180 degrees off. Open the oil cap and peer through to see what the #1 valves are doing. If one (or both) is open, you are 180 degrees off, and are trying to fire the cylinder in between the exhaust and intake strokes. Swap the wires around 2 spots on the dist cap and try again.

When the distributor drive gear is in wrong, the wires (at least when moved around enough to run properly) won't look like any manual picture. And sometimes, you can have the gear in such a position that you can't time it properly - the vacuum thingie on the dist could be against the block.

If you have spark, and it is at the right time (near TDC #1 while both #1 valves are closed), then move on to the next issues. Sounds like compression is squared away, try some starting fluid in the carbs during cranking to see if the carbs aren't fueling for some reason.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic 245 + turbo