Home Handyman

Some folks like various stripping agents and others go for the heat gun and a scraper...me? I like the belt sander, or a flap-type stripping disk on the mini grinder. If the wood is nice underneath that paint you could go with a natural stain. Or if you prefer colours, stain comes that way too. Since you're a car guy I think you'll like what a buddy of mine did. He has a body shop and actually painted his patio furniture (wooden) with automotive paint! Sprayed clear coat on it and even baked it. It looks great...shines like a frickin' show car! He's a very talented painter and did it in a candy apple red...awesome. His wife wanted bright white kitchen cabinets and he did the same deal there. Took the cabinets into the shop and sprayed the paint, the clear...baked them too. She got her bright white kitchen. Kinda like Trooper's song "Bright White Sports Car", heh,heh. I never saw anyone else do what that guy did, but it sure worked for him.

Pictures! We need pictures!

People actually pay me to give their furniture the old, many layers of worn and chipped paint look, so if you like that sort of look you might be ahead of the game here. You could simply remove all the loose paint and then seal it with a low luster or flat urethane.
 
If the exsiting finish isn't worn or chipped enough simply do a little sanding on the edges. Use your scraper to encourage chips that let the lower paint colors and the wood show through. Beat it with a length of chain, a hammer, etc. to add some random dents and dings if it doesn't already have those. I love distressing furniture since it's hard to get it wrong. The only real trick to doing it well is knowing when to enough is enough.

I have three old porch rockers that I plan on doing this to. They have multiple coats of paint and the top coat is peeling badly. Unfortunately, the top coat is the most obnoxious shade of green that I've ever seen so I'll have to disguise that color by either wiping a dark wood stain on and wiping it off to darken and dull the color or by applying a thin wash or glaze over them in a color I can live with before I seal them.  

Well, spent the day sanding on them and painting....They weren't peeling as bad as I thought.....Mostly took a good scraping, sanding with the orbital sander with 40 grit paper. I am using a alkyd based paint, since that is what seems to be on it before.....Got about 1/2 of them done.

Good work Ponch, ya got it done pretty quick too. I hate that redwood stain...I don't think it ever looked good.