Car painted over factory paint

I bought an old cheapo the other day since for what I needed and what I paid it was a pretty good deal. The only problem is that it has the worlds worst paintjob. It looks fine from 3m or so away, but as you get closer you can see they've painted over dirt, and when I looked even closer I could see some freaking brush marks.

There was a little bit of flaking on the bonnet, and I could see the factory colour underneath so I picked at it, and lo and behold they've painted over the factory paint, clearcoat and all. It looks a bit dull but from the 2 inch stretch I peeled off it doesnt look too bad, certainly better than the trainwreck that's currently on it.

Just thought I'd pop over and ask you much more knowledgeable fellows, what would be the best way to remove that top layer of paint without damaging the factory paint! Or would you just advise leaving the crummy paint job on, as it may be covering badly damaged original paint!

I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but its just a dirty old 1991 prelude.

Thanks heaps!

Probably get a better range of ideas if you can put some photos up in here (o:

Judy--frankly my advice is leave well enough alone. I can think of a raft of possible senarios that mean you are way WAY worse off than you are now.

Maybe a waterblaster would get the crud paint off.
There is a graffiti remover that I use to remove paint without damaging the original paint.

This^^^^^. There must be a reason somebody painted it and the bit you can see might be the only bit of intact substrate there is. If you must tutu with it try a water blaster.

There could be anything under that paint or there could be nothing just bog over chicken wire or newspaper.

I have a feeling you could be right. I dont think anythings been badly bogged or anything along those lines. But lookings at a patch by the sunroof Im pretty sure its covering an inch stretch of rust, the same with a small patch on the left front panel. Nothing structural as far as I can tell, but if I start digging I may find a whole lot more problems that have just been covered over.