Robert,
Oops, try this instead.

It appears that you have solved your problem, so this suggestion is only an after thought.
My solution was to set the zOrder of all my toolbar buttons by doing the following in the Init() of the highest parent class of my toolbar:

With This
.cmdButton1.zOrder(0) && Display order 1
.cmdButton2.zOrder(0) && Display order 2
.cmdButton3.zOrder(0) && Display order 3
EndWith && This

If additional buttons are added during subclass design The following code is executed in the init:

If Not DoDefault()
Return .F.
EndIf

This .cmdButtonNext.zOrder(0) && Display order 1

Even though the order might not be what I want at design time, as long as I reference the buttons in the order I want them displayed, all is well.