For thin stock like rub rails and laminated coamings a heat gun works just as well. I have built several coamings this way and it works very well. If you put a little pressure on the wood and apply the heat you you can feel it relax as it heats up.

Just curious Jeff ... what kinda heat gun are you using? I use a heat gun to bend thin stock all the time ... but I'm using a Wagner HT1000 heat gun ... and the air it puts out is certainly hot enough but there's not much of it ... so the nozzle has to be held very close to the wood and bending is a s-l-o-w process. I wanna get one that puts out gobs of hot air rather than a trickle.

Ken Blanton