[georgieb51]

I painted my bed wood to match the truck color. I began with red oak because I got it cheap. I have never heard of doing what i have done but I started out by saturating the wood with epoxy sealer (Smith's CPES), then smoothing the pores of the wood by using Total Boat Total Fair (A boat fairing epoxy used on wood boats sold by Jamestown Distributors. I have spend years working on wood boats and can guarantee this finish is bullet-proof from any sort of weather. Most folks cannot believe it is wood. But even if you want to just varnish your wood coat is first with epoxy sealer. I have quite a few more tricks regarding this process if anyone wants to learn.