Sorry it took a while but here is my update after my first detail attempt on my Mini Cooper S. (Pics at bottom)
My basic steps;
Wash Car - Used Gold Class car wash in foam gun. Had 1 bucket with clean water and grit guard to keep my mitt clean (MF not wool).
Clay - Used Megs clay and quick detailer
Tape - Taped up all the black trim, Mini has too many!
Compound - I used Meguiars Ultra Compound with LC CSS Orange 5.5" pad
Polish - I used Mequiars M205 polish with LC CSS White 5.5" pad
Wax - Collinite 845 with LC CSS Black 5.5" pad
Overall I found the porter cable polisher to work great, although wish I had sprung for longer cable. The shorter cable does make it easy to store however.
Clay - made the biggest difference to how the paint felt under my hands, especially the baggie trick, could not believe the crap you feel.
Taping - took such a long freaking time! (see pic). The tape left a lot of residue on the black trim. Spent an hour taping, then another 30 minutes removing the residue. I used 3M painters tape but I may have to buy a lower tackiness version I guess. This part of the detail really took the steam from my enthusiasm for the project.
Compound - Fist time I put the polisher on the car. I watched a ton of video that make it look easy, and I guess it is, but it took a while to get the technique down. Mainly sticking to a small section, keeping your movements steady, keeping a steady speed, and keeping the pad parallel to the surface. I could see when I was biasing the polisher one way or the other.
The Ultra compound worked great, I didn't get any dust even making 6 complete section passes with moderate pressure. I used MF towel as shown by Mike to clean the pad between passes. For couple of sections I used Meguiars M105 to get the scratches completely off.
Polish - by the this time I felt comfortable with the polisher, but I forgot how much pressure to apply using M205, or how many section passes. I kept to 5-6 passes and moderate pressure. After this step the car looked great, but did not feel amazing to my hand (did not glide yet).
Wax - Put on the black pad and I turned the Collinite bottle upside down...thick as can be and it was not coming out. It felt solid throughout but I gave it a few shakes and felt it coming apart. After what seemed like 10 minutes of shaking I still could not get even consistency out of the bottle. I will still getting small solid chunks
(Is this normal?). I kept shaking after each section and still small solid bits coming out.
Collinite went on easy. I worked using larger section, lower speec, and no pressure. I still did about 4-6 section passes (too much?). Must have been the damp night (1am by this point) the wax never hazed and bottle warned against leaving it on too long.
The end result was very good, the appearance was better than what I expected, but still the paint did not have a wet glide feel. After all that work I expected my MF towel to just slide off the hood on its own. Next time I'm thinking of adding glaze stage between M205 and Collinite. I hear CG EZ cream works great.
So i'm now hooked and think I can tackle my friends Porsche 911. But this time I'm having him order the product and I'll supply the muscle
Here are some pics...would love some feedback and tips.
This is the step that took the longest....
This section of the hood had the most scratches. I used Ultra Compound and again with M105. Before Pic.
Here is another before shot:
Here is the same section after Ultra/M105/M205.
Another after:
Finished Car!
Door Panel:

The money shot, love the reflection:
