IMHO, taking a body to bare metal is asking for problems, unless there is a good reason to do so. Talk to your painter on this.
I'd treat your existing topcoat as a layer of the substrate, or primer if you will. Leaving it on and working from there will provide protection against moisture getting into the pores of the metal. The only problem with leaving it on, is if you have a number of repaints, thus diminishing the sharpness of the body lines.
There is a good article in this months' Car Craft about inexpensive painting.
Additionally, if you're going to be doing all the hard work, why aren't you going to squirt the paint? Applying the paint is not rocket science, and if you're planning a BC/CC (Base Coat/Clear Coat) process, you can produce excellent results at home.
After a very bad experience with a shoddy paint shop, I will not ever farm out another paint job.
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"I work in high speed aluminum tubing."
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