I solved my problem by creating a compound border attribute every time I set the border color, like this:
change: function(hex) {
//console.log(hex + ' - ' + opacity);
var curObj = window.curObj;
var inner = '#' + $(curObj).attr("id") + ' .object_inner';
$(inner).css('border-color', hex);
//hack for chrome to get around htmlpurifier bug dropping border-color defined in rgb on IMG tags.
var border_all = $(inner).css('border');
if (border_all == '') { //ff returns empty string so we'll have to uild our own compound object
var width = $(inner).css('border-top-width');
var color = $(inner).css('border-top-color');
$(inner).css('border','solid '+width+' ' + color);
}
else { //but for chrome it is enough to pull the compound out, then set it hard. The browser does the work.
$(inner).css('border',border_all);
}
}