Oh how fun, flyleft! I love the look of those, but can't testify as to the construction. My guess would be that it would be pretty good, though. No smoke smell? Amazing. I would go for it!

I would go for it! We have a vintage sofa (Drexel) we got from an estate auction, and it is awesome. We will need to get it re-upholstered in the near future, but that the original upholstery lasted 50+ years is pretty confirming.

In comparing costs of new sofas, you have to spend a lot to get quality, so I'd rather have quality vintage even factoring in the cost of reupholstery.

I have a 48 year old Flexsteel sofa and every time I've had it reupholstered I've been told what good solid sofa it is. Too good in fact to give away or sell for a small amount which is why I still have it. Mine is not the Thunderbird style but is a traditional and timeless style altho smaller scale than most sofas today.

Thanks, cyn, sciencechick, and lucky...well, *deep sigh* we (at least temporarily) turned it down, because it appeared that between the last time we saw it and today, the back had been significantly weakened and you could move it around : ( : (

I want that sofa so much I was almost willing to say let's just get it and have it repaired but it still wasn't at an amazing *enough* price to feel comfortable with it.

I do wonder if maybe we should reconsider, given your story, lucky...the base, with the 'blue steel' parts (flash Zoolander face : )) is in fine condition, and we saw that the wood parts of the base are made with very fine-grained oak, solid...you just don't see that these days. It's only the movable back that gave us pause.

So with that in mind, may I ask, how much does reupholstering cost, lucky, just a general ballpark figure or range? The labor, not the fabric...This sofa is 101" wide...

And CYN, CYN -- did you preorder Dizzy Heights? : ) A couple of days ago I watched "Lights of New York", filmed by Liam...it's haunting. Neil does the interface between techno and acoustic so brilliantly. But of course. Hope you're doing well in general...

Upholstery varies regionally, but I had a non-vintange chair done for around 5 yards of fabric (bought at Calico Corners so I probably overpaid at about $30/yd onsale) and about $350 in labor. I am estimating getting our sofa done would probably be around $1,000, maybe more. There is a place here that does vintage upholstery. They guy who did the chair is now back to doing it since they have a new facility, but they are only doing vintage pieces now.

Most online fabric calculators seem to indicate I would need 10-11 yards of fabric.

The sofa you show is much larger than mine and mine takes nearly 20 yards of fabric as it has a skirt and separate (reversible) cushions.

It's possible to find upholstery fabric at fairly low prices if one shops around for bolt ends at discount stores. Labor is the deal-breaker for me especially here in the backwoods where they can charge whatever the market will bear. I haven't had mine reupholstered in years as it's not used much (being in a guest room) and last time I had an estimate done it was more than I wanted to pay.

Thanks for your replies...I googled upholstery yardage calculator and it seems I'm in for at least 20 yds..I wonder if I could keep some of it (at least the back cushions?) and redo the rest in a coordinating new fabric? When we first saw it there was a chair in a coordinated floral and it looked cool...but I'm going to say 20 so anything less will be a nice surprise. It's definitely not a DIY job for these increasingly clumsy hands (carpal tunnel, trigger thumb).

The *repair*, however, of the back support might be doable, and DH is already looking into it (he would love to do it) but it should really be at a lower cost than it is now for us to want to take that on.

Unless something changes, I fear that this will be one Thunderbird that outflew us...