Gradient in Postbit Issue

[Contra Fates]

Hello,

I've been trying to add in a gradient background image to my postbit legacy, and have so far been successful in adding it to the postbit area on the left where all the avatar, username, etc is. But, I can't seem to add it to the actual message area without causing weird stretching. This is the code I used to do the gradient on the left side, along with what I was going to use for the postbit message area.

If anyone could give me the fix for this, I'd be very appreciative:

<td class="alt2" style="text-align: center; border: $stylevar[cellspacing]px solid $stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]; border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px solid #000000; background: #03273F
url(image url is in here) repeat-x top left;" height="100%" align="center" >

This is what I used for the message area, that causes the strange stretching on the left side. [But only on certain posts!]

 <if condition="$show['moderated']">
<td class="alt2" id="td_post_$post[postid]" style="border-$stylevar[right]: $stylevar[cellspacing]px solid $stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]">
<else />

<td class="alt1" id="td_post_$post[postid]" style="border-$stylevar[right]: $stylevar[cellspacing]px solid $stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]; border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px solid #000000; background: #03273F
url(image url in here) repeat-x top left;" height="100%" align="center">

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really want to add in the gradients, but I can't seem to figure out what I did wrong with the code to make it stretch the way it is.

Thanks in advance!