I've manufactured phenolic composites from resin and from prepreg.
My limited experience says that it takes heat pretty well, it's brittle, and it doesn't bond to anything particularly well. Which doesn't mean that you couldn't line something with precured phenolic.
I'm not sure how you could apply it as a coating, say over an adhesive, because the phenolic resin itself releases a substantial amount of water as a reaction product during cure, just as it changes from a low viscosity liquid to a gelatinous... something, and before it gets truly hard.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA