Thanks for the suggestion, I already use the developer toolbar. It would truly be a nightmare without it.
My issue was that I assumed it was a color specification. Bad assumption, like a lot of parts of this template it is actually an image applied to the background. It looks like a flat color but it’s not. It was grad1.gif. I edited that image file to a color that suited my needs.
Thanks for the response.
FYI to others all the colors in col1 are also not colors but a series of images so to really affect the menu bar on the left you need to edit all those images. good luck!