I would expect to see the traditional foot start switch in a '49.. since every '46, '47, '48, '49, '50, and '51 chevrolet truck i've ever seen had one.
In all cases, the foot switch served two purposes.. depressing the pedal slid the starter gear out and onto the flywheel teeth, then activated a button on the starter that turned the starter motor.
Being a later model (62) engine, you probably have the new fangled "selonoid" style starter, which uses, as the name suggests, an electric selonoid to push that starter gear out.
If you wanted to preserve the '49's original "foot stomp start" you'd just have to rig a switch in there so when you stomped on the foot start, it hit the switch.
The contacts on this switch would be tied parallel to the back of your keyswitch's terminals for "batt" and "starter".
That way, you could hit the foot switch to start.. but if that switch ever got jacked up, you could still use the keyswitch method.
