We've had a couple decent days of weather, so decided to get back on finishing the bedsides. I've been putting this off because I wasn't looking forward to all the sanding.
Anyway, spent half the weekend and got about a third of the bedsides done.
We are fine sanding the old sides back to fresh wood, floating some black paint onto them, sanding them back down to expose some grain, and then treating them with a Thompson water seal/stain.