First, thanks again for those that commented thus far.
I agree with the whole trust thing. But here's the deal, I trust the owner a ton since he has worked on my plane out of a trailer for the past year and half. He bought this new new hangar (with some buiness partners) and also got a few mechanics in the deal. When I took the plane to him (after calling to schedule the annual) I thought HE was doing the work as usual. Turns out that he now wants to sit behind a desk as Direcctor of Maint and has these other guys doing the work. I don't doubt for a minute that they do quality work. I do however doubt that it would take me 17 hrs to remove & re-install the exhaust by myself. As a little background, I did many things in the Navy and one of them was the rating of Engineman - which among other things tears down and reapirs huge diesel engines on ships. So I think I can look at a mechanical job and at least have an informed opinion. Again - 17 hrs was the charge for the exchaust itself. 3 hrs to remove and replace 10 adel clamps all easily accessible on the front engine.
Also, when removing the exhaust, I told them we would put on all new hardwaqre and clamps, and the exhaust itself was deliberately being removed to send off for overhaul by Dawley - so not a lot of 'saving' had to be done during its removal. Now that the exhaust was removed, the cylinders should've been pretty darn accessible.
Happy to continue to hear opinions, even if they don't agree with mine. Just trying to see where I'm wrong with my line of thinking.
________
Ford C4 Transmission History