Having seen the Lotus 49 at the Monaco Historique a couple of weeks ago and reading this thread, I remembered that I had an old book by David Hodges gathering dust on a bookshelf.
This was published in 1970 and gives a very detailed history of the Lotus 49 and is quite interesting in the information it has on 49/2. According to Hodges, 49/2 was converted to B specification and became 49B/10. It was then converted to C specification in 1970
The following is a quotation from the book: "49C/10 which had also survived accidents, had the distinction of being the oldest Grand Prix car raced in 1970 - it was originally 49/2…..although just how much of the original car remained was questionable"
Incidentally, the Pete Lovely car (49B/11 ) is described as originally being 49/5 which was converted to B specification and driven to Monaco victory by G Hill in 1968 before being refurbished as 49B/11
I expect Mike Oliver will respond to this...
It was Mike's exhaustive research for his own 49 book that finally laid this misinformation to rest in the late 1990's - and proved beyond reasonable doubt that 49-2 morphed into 49B-11, whilst 49-5 was replated as 49B-10.
Peter