Hi Clay,
I split this post out into it's own thread since it wasn't really a question about the skin switcher.
I honestly do not know how you could do what you are attempting with any code in your skin.
Trying to change the output of Solpart like that would be very difficult and you would not be able to manage the images in CSS.
I don't really recall the other thread so maybe you can refresh my memory on that.
To summarize what I think you are after, it sounds like you are wanting to create an image menu that is based on TabNames so that it can be portable across portals. It just so happens that Nina has been working on the same type of skin using my latest CSS NavMenu over at http://www.skincovered.com. You can see an example skin at http://july.skincovered.com
Not that I shy away from a challenge, but trying to manipulate Solpart to do this is next to impossible. That is one of the resons I created my own navigation menu. The reason it is so hard is because Solpart produces XML which goes to the browser and then is parsed by Javascript.
One thing I have done in the past is to change the javascript in SPMenu.js to accomplish things like this, but there are all kinds of problems with doing that as you are probably aware.