Anyone have any suggestions about painting and attaching/gluing some cladding on the exterior of a 1996 Classic?

 

Easiest thing to do is get a roll of 1ft wide 3M flat black vinyl and heat gun it flat along that body line crease across the whole side, wrap it under the bottom edge and into the door gaps. Looks great and not permanent. I did this for $40 and it looked great on my old XJ. If you hate it or goof it up, just peels off.

Or, buy the original 1980s-looking plastic rust promoting slabs and use thin foam backed tape to install. This will be much more $.

 

What did you use to remove the old glue ?I would clean that up and maybe paint it first because of the scratches.Then to put the trim back 3m trim adhesive tape.But to me id leave all the lower trim off and touch up paint any place under it that needs it.

 

There's a 3M adhesive remover disc that fits into a drill chuck. I used Goo Gone when I redid the trim in my '99. 3M double-sided foam trim tape to reattach