RE: TRANSPARENT COVERING QUESTION
Assuming you don't have heavy callouses on your fingertips, anything you can feel with your fingertips or finger nail will show through the covering, transparent or opaque. You can make any size or shape sanding block you need with scrap wood and sandpaper, and sand until you can neither see nor feel any imperfections. Then when you cover it, you will have, perhaps, only a million or so imperfections showing under the cover.