[Buddha]

if anyone still hasn't gotten it to work, try this.
place this in the postbit

<tr><td bgcolor="{pagebgcolor}" width="100" height="10" align="center"></td></tr>

where the code is

href="newreply.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=newreply&postid=$post[postid]"><img src="{imagesfolder}/quote.gif" border="0" alt="Reply w/Quote"></a>
</smallfont></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="{pagebgcolor}" width="100" height="10" align="center"></td></tr></table>

and then to seperate the top post from the header, go into the showthread template and insert the same code

<tr><td bgcolor="{pagebgcolor}" width="100" height="10" align="center"></td></tr>

where the code is

<!-- /Thread nav and post images -->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="{pagebgcolor}" width="100" height="10" align="center"></td></tr></table>

sorry mist, your suggestion wasn't working properly on my site either... and i think it is because i use different colors for the page bg and the forum bg... anyway, tweaked around and this works for me. may work for others too.