The ubbthreads.tmpl was fine with the exception that I had to add the $tbclose variable right after this:
<!-- END CATEGORY LOOP -->
<!-- END OF FORUM LOOP -->
and removed the hard coded
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
otherwise everything else was fine.
I'll be making some different colors of what I have in use along with specific style sheets for them. I'll get them posted here at some point.