Tips for updating an old design, please

While cleaning an old harddrive, I came across an old website template my former businesspartner never finished but I have always been quite fond of. It was supposed to be for a company making encryption software, so he went with the theme of steel - taken from the Apple OS interface.

It must have been somewhere around 2003. Currently, this template is clearly outdated - temporary websites are wider and much more "open" - not anymore confined to a 650px box.

However, I would still like to use the concept for my own website, but it is heavily outdated. Do you have some pointers on how I could make this more contemporary without losing the concept of "steel plate"?

All help is greatly appreciated.

Maybe you can make the side navigation transparent and put it on the "metal sheet" texture background, and somehow make the text engraved-like.

I'd redo the tabs for a cleaner look, or get rid of them all together. The writing on the tabs is a little small for important navigation.

I'd probably start all over from scratch. Templates are a pain and it's probably made with tables not css.
I think a fresh start would be the easiest.

i agree. but if your dead-set on using it i know fireworks cs3 has a few different chrome/metallic backgrounds