Sanding shell.. what grit paper to use?

[Grrrrrrr!]

I've got a car to prep for painting.. the first step is to take the really crappy respray job paint off (probably lacquer), then take off any of the crappy faded 90's toyota red that I assume was the reason for the first respray. I'd prefer not to go right back to bare metal if its not necessary, so I'm wondering what grit paper would rip thru the topcoats at a reasonable pace but not have too much risk of going thru the primer. Will be buying a dual action sander off trademe to do the big areas and be doing the tricky bits by hand.

I'm thinking 280ish grit to start then work back up to 600ish before base/clear?

[QikStarlie]

paint stripper it all off, will be far easier.

[Quint]

start with 120, get yourself a cheap 30 dollar palm sander from bunnings and get stuck in.
Hit it with high fill primer.
Sand that with 120 by hand.

Now you have a good base to coat as many times as you want, more is better.

[LEAKER]

if you dont want to ruin the lines iof the car and you can't afford a proper sander with the soft foam pad which contours to the cars shape or even hire then hand sand it with 400 untill your happy with how far back it is then finish it with 600 or 800. It takes a $&#$% long time and it's really hard work but it's worth it in the end. This was reccomended by the panel beating tutor at tech and my cars paint was completely $&#$%. The paint job came out really nicely doing it this way. Make sure you run 6/800 over afterwards or you will see all the sanding scratches in the base coat if you look carefully.