[drcoastline]

Dave,

From your post I gather this willl be a fresh water boat and you want low maintenance vs. long term looks and protection? That being said I would power wash it to remove any flaking paint.

For the bottom I would advise against truck bed liner. It will creat drag and a lot of it. A little 12v trolling motor willl have a tough time pushing a loaded boat with all the extra drag for any length of time with out draining batteries and wearing out the motor. Remember a boat motor is under 100% load all of the time. In addition all the nooks and crannies are a great place for algae to form causing more drag. Plus the bottom willl need to be cleaned often.

No matter what you put on the bottom it willl eventually wear off from being beached. I would recommend rolling on a few heavy coats of epoxy (even polyester resin) on the bottom. For a little extra protection on the leading edge of the bow, keel and chines from abrasion when beaching I would cut some thin strips of composite porch decking and fasten them to those areas. I would then paint on several coats of an ablative bottom paint.

For the rest of the boat rustoleum willl work just fine for what you are doing. Just an FYI, aluminum is one of the hardest metals to paint as it begins to oxidize immediately. So you willl need to clean it, scuff it and paint it as quickly as possible to avoid having the paint bubble and peel.

The bed liner would make a great non skid on the inside but the black willl absorber a lot of heat. It may become to hot for bare feet.