Euh... May I add that your guitar as shown on the first pic does not look bad too me in its current state
About removing the finish, last month as I was asking about the number of part in a guitar body and tone my luthier showed a 1966 Strat he was working on : He had removed several layers of paint and the pricey relic looked like a new one from Allpart or Warmoth.
And so that '66 Strat body was made of two parts not just one.