You can strip the paint but it is never a good idea, usually in is just as cheap to recover the aircraft as there is very little labour involved in removing the fabric.
This is a good time to take a very god look at the airframe and any bits that look a bit rotten you just glue another bit of tree in place and sand it back to shape.
The W&B issues are due to the Thelert engine being lighter than the 180HP Lycoming and about the same weight as the 160 & 140 HP engines, there being no wing tanks to help keep the C of G forward.