I'm fairly new to the hobby, but I've learned a few things along the way. If you are planning a full restoration then yes, I would strip the car down to a bare shell leaving it so you can roll it around. Have it blasted then use epoxy primer. Once you know what you have left start on the major body work and panel replacement, but I wouldn't finish the body work and definately wouldn't paint it until you get everything sorted out and mocked up. You don't want to be fumbling around the car with fresh paint. Basically build the car then take it back apart for final body work and paint . You also don't want to end up with a torn apart car with fresh paint then take a break for finacial reasons and just have to let it sit. If you wait on paint and interior you can have fun driving a little and work out the bugs before tearing it back down for paint.

As you get sick of doing body work you can switch to cleaning up old suspension parts or ordering and assembling new ones, building the engine, or doing any one of plenty of odds and ends, etc.