Thanks So Much Janice!
I found some of your other posts about vest cleaning too and your expertise on this has been a huge help!
I did handwash everything fabric by hand with dawn and since I live in an apartment could only let them air dry in the window. Gave everything metal a rubdown with a damp cloth/dawn
Still smelly! Even the metal parts! Amazing!
I read online that vingar apparently has magical smell absorbing properties, so I gave it another wash with straight up vinegar in a spray bottle
Still smelly! Vinegar smell was completely overpowered by the smoke within about 30 minutes
My next resort has been to put vest in a bin with about a million tea bags for another day.
Still smelly!
Will try the odor absorber from the store next. Especially for the case which I'm sure will take years to air out... Or I thought about replacing the foam... Or just replacing...
But the sunshine thing, I feel that must be the key so I'm going to head out to my parents place in the suburbs (Of Chicago!) to lay everything out in the lawn and enlist my mom to help me with some more old wives tricks like charcoal and kitty litter, etc.
This is so funny!
When it all works out I will let everyone know how the saga unfolds :)
Also- I did end up finding a listing for a compact flyer vest on BHphoto. It didn't turn up on my initial search but when I was re-searching on my phone it popped up, it must've been hiding from the algorithyms or something.
They do say "special order" but here's the links to the Flyer vests still available on BH for anybody who might need this in the future.
Standard Flyer Vest:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/446422-REG/Steadicam_803_7800_803_7800_Standard_Vest_f_Flyer.html/prm/alsVwDtl
Compact Flyer Vest
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/488877-REG/Steadicam_803_7800_01_803_7800_01_Camera_Support_Vest.html
And Janice- if you are ever doing any more workshops in Chicago let me know, I would love to attend!
But if it's soon and my vest is still smelly I may have to take a raincheck :)
Thanks again