There was no point in painting it, as that would do nothing to disguise the shoddy workmanship.
There was no point in attaching lattice, or even sheets of plywood to make it opaque, as the construction is so dubious that the extra weight would probably pull it down.
I previously hung up painters drop cloths cut to size, and hemmed, on the chainlink fence as a privacy screen. This was certainly better than nothing. The cheapest material would be drop cloths - but as these are usually cotton, they will mildew and rot outside in a short period of time. Canvas meant for exterior applications like awnings is UV resistant acrylic, but a quality material runs $ 15.00 - 30.00/yd. I estimated I would need about 30 yards, as it would need to be pieced to fit a 6' fence (most wide fabric is 54").
Finally I found my solution: recycled billboard tarps.
While they are printed on one side, the other is solid black. They are huge - 14' x 48'. I read reviews from people who used them for many purposes and the concensus was that they were super durable, easy to cut and sew, and were completely opaque. A local surplus store sold them for $ 79.95. This was the cheapest for any amount of material.
Each tarp weighs 40 lbs, so they are unwieldy to wrassle. I also did not have a large paved driveway to lay it out to cut on, but I figured something out and cut in sections.
I wasn't sure how I would feel about staring at black plastic vs the terrible fence. The bad fence raised my blood pressure every single time I looked at it. It's almost a year since it was built, and the boards have shrunk considerably, so there is now copious light leakage through them. The plastic couldn't be worse, I thought.
Fence front, before:
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Fence after. It was impossible to make them fit smooth and tight as the bizarre construction below was lumpy with old chain link posts, odd sistering of wood and other head scratchers:
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Amount of light leakage with one panel applied, and two sections without:
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Starting on the worst sections in the backyard:
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Two down and one to go tomorrow:
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I set 00 grommets along the perimeter and used short wood screws to attach it to the fence.
It is not beautiful, but it sure is bettER. It is really an improvement not seeing the movement of cars, the overly bright pumps, etc. through the fence gaps.
