I just finished power-polishing out scratches by myself using a circular power polisher. It was easy, even thought the fear of gawd was driven in to me about using a power polisher (not an orbital buffer).

I bought a Milwaukee variable speed polisher (0 - 1700 r.p.m.) off of eBay for $110. Went here:

http://www.properautocare.com/spotrepairkit.html

and bought their spot repair kit ($49). Followed their instrictions and just finished removing some scratches off the clearcoat that did not make their way down to the paint.

You could never tell! Now it's on to dog scratches on the driver's fender :-)

I'm sure a body shop would have charged me what I have paid already, plus knowing the scratches are there (and I can get rid of them) does not eat at the very core of my existance anymore.

 

A circular power polisher is better known as a ROTARY buffer. No wonder they work so well on an RX-8.

Congrats on overcoming the anxiety and getting the job done. BTW, there's some great forums on machine buffing on autopia.org.