Gauging Interest: West Coast Magneto Service & Hop-up

[nowhitebelts]

A good friend of mine is a Magneto technician who has done work on racing planes for over a decade and is well respected in the field. Problem is, there's only so many aircraft mags that need service and it barely pays the bills.

He's talked a bit about starting up a shop on the west coast to service/rebuild motorcycle magnetos, create hop-up kits and service guides for home builders, do conversions of 6v generators to 12v and eventually, build his own hot-rodded mags for bikes.

I wanted to post here to see what people thought of this. Would you use the service? Does it already exist in the community? Any other thoughts or ideas?

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond!

[tankerdude135]

Prob depends. Is he just offering repair? Or something new to offer in the way of a product? I'm thinking most would either repair their mag in their garage with parts from Hunt or Morris, or send the unit back to them to check out if necessary. Hunt is based here in Sacramento. How much will he charge compared to the big two for services? How much can be made on repairs vs sales? Does he want to be a dealer or just repair? Just a couple of questions I thought of off the top of my head. If I were him I would draft a full up business model to see if it is a viable option based on a lot of factors. Not sure if that helps or not….