They were ALL originally mounted above the bumper and in front of the grilles, as in the first car pictured. Most folks don't like that because the beauty of the front styling is partially obstructed.
The base bumper itself was apparently shared with another car (I believe it may be a Windsor), where the plate was mounted in front of the bumper. On these cars, there is a flattened spot in the center of the bumper for the plate to rest/mount against. On Imperials, this flattened spot is covered by a bold & heavy steel plate that gives our front bumper a "pointed" look. This plate is rather exposed, and can accumulate dents and scratches, so I have seen some cars with it removed, revealing the flattened area under it. Mounting the license plate in front of it also has the effect of covering the damage to the filler plate.
Below the middle of the basic bumper are two additional mounting holes for the plate bracket on the "other cars". These holes present the Imperial owner with an alternative mounting spot for the license plate bracket. That is what was apparently done in the second car pictured. It is not a "perfect" spot as it is very low, and the bracket has to be "bought out" rather far from the bumper so that the license plate can clear the pointed chrome filler plate in the center.
I had mounted the front plates on both my '56 and '55 cars in this way. More than once they were torn off entering or exiting steep driveway aprons. In our state, older cars only require a rear plate, so for me this has ceased to be a problem.
I'm on a quest for a front license plate bracket for my 56. I have one very rusted example from the parts car I'm currently disassembling and the chance to purchase another from a gentleman in AR. What I've discovered based on my conversation with him and a review of the pictures on the website, is that there were two different orientations for front plate mounting: a lower mounted bracket that was attached to the bottom of the bumper and placed the plate in front of the bumper and an upper mounted bracket coming off of the top of the bumper that placed the plate in front of the grill. For examples compare the following pictures from our website:
http://www.imperialclub.org/Yr/1956/Farrar/Front.jpg
http://www.imperialclub.org/Yr/1956/NormanWeinfeld/PurchaseDay.jpg
This raises some obvious questions:
Why the difference?
When was the change made?
(And most important to my current quest) Are the brackets the same, only mounted differently or are they different?
Thanks,
Jeff
'56 Sedan
Trenton, NJ
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