[Lynne]

It gets done in the postbit_legacy template.

First, copy and save your postbit_legacy template to a text file.

I'm not sure, but I think you want to find this whole chunk of code (this is from 3.8, so yours may be slightly different):

        <!-- controls -->
        <if condition="$post['editlink']">
            <img style="display: none" id="progress_$postid" src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/progress.gif" alt="$vbphrase[loading_editor_please_wait]" />
            <a href="$post[editlink]" name="vB::QuickEdit::$post[postid]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/edit.gif" alt="$vbphrase[edit_delete_message]" border="0" /></a>
        </if>
        <if condition="$post['forwardlink']">
            <a href="$post[forwardlink]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/forward.gif" alt="$vbphrase[forward_message]" border="0" /></a>
        </if>
        <if condition="$post['replylink']">
            <a href="$post[replylink]" rel="nofollow"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/<if condition="$post['forwardlink']">reply_small<else />quote</if>.gif" alt="$vbphrase[reply_with_quote]" border="0" /></a>
        </if>
        <if condition="$show['multiquote_post']">
            <a href="$post[replylink]" rel="nofollow" onclick="return false"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/multiquote_<if condition="$show['multiquote_selected']">on<else />off</if>.gif" alt="$vbphrase[multi_quote_this_message]" border="0" id="mq_$post[postid]" /></a>
        </if>
        <if condition="$show['quickreply'] AND !$show['threadedmode']">
            <a href="$post[replylink]" rel="nofollow" id="qr_$post[postid]" onclick="return false"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/quickreply.gif" alt="$vbphrase[quick_reply_to_this_message]" border="0" /></a>
        </if>

Copy it, move it into this area, then delete the original:

        $template_hook[postbit_messagearea_start]
            <div class="smallfont" style="align:right;">
                put all the code from above in here
            </div>
        <if condition="$show['messageicon'] OR $post['title']">
            <!-- icon and title -->
            <div class="smallfont" style="align:left;">
                <if condition="$show['messageicon']"><img class="inlineimg" src="$post[iconpath]" alt="$post[icontitle]" border="0" /></if>
                <if condition="$post['title']"><strong>$post[title]</strong></if>
            </div>
            <!-- / icon and title -->
        </if>
            <hr size="1" style="color:$stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]; background-color:$stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]" />

(I moved the <hr> to outside the condition, you will need to do that also.) This is NOT tested. If it doesn't work, replace with the original code.