Auto body repair & detailing: Where to start on body repair, wear rubber gloves, painting a car

Question
I bought a 1963 chevy a couple of years ago and now I want to start to fix the body up. It visually does not have a lot of body damage that I can see, but paint could hide a lot of it.There is some rust by the rocker panels. I plan on driving this car to cruise nights so I want the body to look good.Because of the expense, I do not want to do a frame off restoration. I would like to take all the paint off first and see what I really have. My question is how should I do that? Then secondly, once the paint is off, how do I prevent it rusting. Because I don't work very quickly and I'm afraid of it starting to rust with bare metal exposed.
Thanks, Ralph

Answer
To do it right, the car should be completely dismantled. I recommend to any old car buff, to take a course in auto restoration, there's a lot more to painting a car than you think. That aside, chemical strippers work good. Just do one panel at a time and prime as you go. It's messy so wear rubber gloves and a good respirator. You will need a lot of patience and time and probably a lot more advice. Evan doing it yourself will be expensive time and money wise.