I just cold called CLC about varnishing over top of the 1″ or so black paint extending from the bottom up over the sides.
Mask it off. They said one or the other, don’t varnish over the paint. No difference if you varnish or paint first. But one or the other.
This doesn’t jive with what I’ve seen on the net, but that’s fine with me.
I also researched fill coats for the bottom. Everything seems to point to it being for cosmetic reasons only so I’m not going to bother other than to fill the weave on the overlap up the sides. I accept that it will be harder to clean and the unfilled weave will hold dirt a bit more, but it’s the bottom and I simply don’t care. Hosing it off when I’m home from a camping trip is probably more than I’d normally do anyway and would work just fine.