T&T: Bedliner for boats

[bob england]

I have had no small amount of experience using these materials, on boats and 
vehicles, in severe environments and mundane. My sons and I built an offroad 
4wd hummer type truck from a kit and covered the entire thing top to bottom 
inside and underside, with Gator Liner. That was 5 years ago, it has NEVER 
been washed and has been ran through the worst imaginable terrain from south 
Texas to South Dakota, mud, sand, gravel, you name it, you can walk on the 
hood and not leave a scratch, it's tuff. It's also difficult to apply and 
any nonpouros surface must be VERY rough and etched or it will peel. I have 
used Sanitred on my boats with great success, it looks good and is easy to 
apply. It is a little rougher than some like if you use there rubber 
granules. If you use course sand or ground walnut shells it's not so 
aggressive. If applied over plywood or a pourose surface it sticks like baby 
s#$t to a blanket. It will not fix deck cracks or leaks on a long term 
basis, as it will eventually crack along with the substrate, in other words, 
it is not a fixall method, no matter what the sales person says. It will get 
nasty looking after a few years but just pour a few gallons of styrene or 
acetone on it then rinse and it looks like brand new. Regular washing with 
tsp will keep it from getting grungy looking. It is a close to no 
maintenance as you can get, even Bonita blood won't stick to it. It ain't 
cheap.