Technical 1949 pontiac silver streak

I am completely new to pontiacs. I am about to purchase one that has no drive train but was previously set up for an SBC/T350 combo. Its still has the original rear-end. It's my understanding that these cars are similar to chevy's of that period but only in appearance. Having done a rearend swap on a 51 styleline to a camaro rearend, will this work for the pontiac? I'm told that the pontiac is wider but i can't find rear end specs on these old pontiacs anywhere. Thanks in advance for any helpful responses!

 

Wait till ya get the car
Pontiacs were open drive shaft

 

Google shows a tread width of 59” and 60”. You have to figure in a little wheel offset but in those days they were mostly pretty close to centered. So, 59”- 60” should be in the ballpark.

 

Why would you want to?

The Olds, Pontiac rears were the 9" Fords of their day.

 

mebbe the same as an olds, only the '49 olds was torque tube...

 

If your '49 was an 8 cylinder hydro, the existing 3rd member will be perfect ... if not, an Olds or Pontiac 3rd member thru '55 bolts in ...

 

Any idea what the gearing was in the 49?

 

Thanks for all that replied. I'm picking it up on Saturday so i will post pics and follow up info soon. Thanks again.

 

Not without knowing what engine & trans were in it ...

 

I concur that there is no real good reason to replace the rearend. They are plenty strong and in 49 should have freeway gears of either 3.08 or 3.23 depending on the model.

 

^^^ for some reason had it in my head that this was a Hydramatic. Gearing will be much steeper if it’s a manual.

 

I am almost positive this is wrong. Olds was an open driveline, Buick and Chev used torque tube driveline.