I would go ahead with black or dark gray if you want to paint it. As you said, it gets hot already, though the painted surface may get as hot or slightly hotter. The upside is that if it is matte finish paint you won't have the reflective glare from it that you get from the bare aluminum. We used a roll on bed liner paint on the inside areas of a boat we redid (gray) and it worked well, especially on the floor areas we did, since it had a texture to it to reduce slipping.

Did you have any issues with adhesion?

No, the bed liner did fine.

I put SeaDek in my boat this year, its expensive ($150) for a 40" x 80" sheet. But it's easy to apply, and comfortable to walk / sit on. 

In retrospect I probably should have looked at something like seadek or at least requested samples to see the color. But I think I can live with this color if I paint the rest of the hull black or dark gray.

Fisherlady- couple more questions: did you put the bed liner on a painted surface or bare aluminum? Did you brush any of it on as well as roll it? What brand did you use?

We used it on both surfaces, scuffed with scotchbrite first. We rolled it on. IIRC it was Rhino Liner.

I have a vinyl floor in my boat. I would never have carpet again. Although it does get hot when that sun beats down on it. It's very easy to clean. Just pull the plug and get the power washer out. We tend to make a mess dragging those worms. Not to mention gillin em and killin em makes for quite the bloodbath somedays. Buddy has an 86 Rebel that needs a new floor. Think wer gonna do it as a winter project this year. I will have to check into SeaDek. 👍

Fished below dam 4 on Saturday, caught a few Walleye and a ton of Smallmouths. Highlight of the day was seeing a giant Musky chase the walleye I was reeling in.  

Caught a bunch of bass and one walleye below dam 3 today. 

Anybody been hitting Arthur recently?

So I got the decks on the boat finished and now that it’s getting a little too cold to kayak the yough I’m trying to see if I can figure out some fall patterns at Arthur before I put everything away for the winter.

We put in a Mcdanels today and messed around up in the fingers for awhile to stay out of the wind. Around dusk I got one decent largemouth just off that shallow weedy flat by the cabins. Pretty typical Arthur day in my experience.

I might try to shoot up there again tomorrow afternoon for a couple hours after work. Looks like it will be warm and a little less windy.