Have not rushed to cover this topic, & you will note that I have not messed with my own navbar in any way, but in the interests of providing a comprehensive list o' hacks, here are some options for formatting the Blogger navbar.

First, what does the navbar do for you & why should you keep it?

1. Brings you some traffic through the "next blog" button, & would bring some to your neighbor too, if you kept your bar. Give a little love!!
   
2. Allows an easy one-click link to blogger for editing / posting to your blog.
   
3. Enables you to search your own blog for archived stuff that you'd like to refer to / edit.
4. Allows you to perform a Google Blogs search for relevant stuff directly out of your blog.
5. Allows your blogspot-dwelling readers to blog your material instantly w/ blogthis! (& allows you to do the same with their stuff, integrating & tightening the blogosphere.)
6. Somewhat controversially allows for the flagging of objectionable (sploggy?) content to bring it to the attention of blogger admin.

All good reasons not to mess with it. There's another reason, though, and that would be #10 on the Blogspot TOS:

10. ADVERTISEMENTS AND PROMOTIONS Pyra runs advertisements and promotions on BlogSpot Sites. By creating your BlogSpot Site, you agree that Pyra has the right to run such advertisements and promotions. You also agree that you will not attempt to block or otherwise interfere with advertisements displayed on your BlogSpot site via JavaScript or any other means. Doing so is grounds for immediate termination of service. The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Pyra on your BlogSpot Site is subject to change....

Now, alright, the navbar replaced the ads (& good thing too, because those ads were ug-ly) but this still seems to be the relevant part of the TOS.

That said, if your interpretation of the TOS is different from mine, and you'd like your 50 pixels (or whatever) back, here's some options for you.....

• Use CSS to hide the Navbar - from Blogger Templates. I interpret this as a TOS violation & don't recommend it.
• Comment out the navbar - from Tygar-blog. Ditto.
  
• Customise the color of the navbar so that it works with your template - from blogkardesligi

While we're in navbar dreamland... How hard would it be to make the nav-bar at least a partially customiseable links bar like the one in my browser where I keep my blummy, & would that be useful? What sort of customised stuff would be worth keeping there that couldn't be added to the main page? Could I retain "my" navbar as I viewed other blogspot sites? (er.... isn't that just a toolbar?....)

....I think I just answered my own question. Back to bed!!