From the restorations photos I've seen, I've tentatively decided on a two-tone Rustoleum "Hammered" spray paint job for the top coat. Which brings me to my question. The Rustoleum Hammered instructions make a pretty big deal of it's ability to cover any old paint, and even untreated rust. Now I wouldn't even consider spraying the stuff over rust, but I'm wondering if completely stripping the old paint is necessary.
Most of the top-notch restorations I've seen get stripped down to the bare metal, then primed appropriately, and then painted. But the paint on both of my machines is good shape "mechanically" -- i.e. still original factory paint with no peeling or chipping. The 10ER finish suffers only from slight oxidation and some small paint splatters. The Dewalt is also afflicted with the speckled green factory color, which is borderline hideous to a guy who suffered through 6 years in a drab old elementary school building with institutional-green paint on every interior surface.
During college, I worked a couple of summers in a body shop. Standard procedure there was to get rid of any loose paint, sand the remaining paint for good "tooth", prime any bare metal, and then alternate sanding and priming with red-oxide primer until any small imperfections were gone. Wiping a wet rag over a sanded primer coat did a good job of showing up any remaining imperfections.
So does stripping the factory paint completely off of a machine really give better results, or can I get away with just scuffing it up and leaving it as as the base coat?
I'd say to stick with rattle cans. 
