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Due to an error last night, I left my case open in my back yard (sans sousaphone) and it filled with rain water after an unexpected downpour. Any ideas about how to dry out the interior so I can use this nearly 90 year old case again would be greatly appreciated. It was out in the sun earlier in an attempt to rid it of "case smell".

No comment on the drying, except keep the air moving, probably with fans.

For advice on the "case smell": Try the advanced search feature, and search for "ozone"; just remember that ozone is toxic.

The first thing you want to do is soak out as much water as possible using dry paper towels. Be liberal with the towels ... use a whole roll if you have to. Press the towel hard against the fabric. Pay particular attention to the corners. Keep doing this until a dry towel doesn't feel damp after you press it against the fabric.

You can get almost all the water out before letting the air dry out the rest. It's very important to do this first step because mildew will start immediately, and you want the drying time to be as short as possible.

After you use the paper towels, the inside of the case will feel dry. It is NOT dry. Keep the case open for several days. Placing it in the sun as you have done is a good idea, but after you soak out as much as possible.

Hup

After the last thread regarding smelly instruments I purchased an ozone machine. They are not that expensive and can sometimes save otherwise ruined cases.

From a purely chemical standpoint an ozone machine is creating the exact same process as leaving it out in the sun BUT in much stronger concentration. It will kill any mold or mildew growing in the case BUT will also likely impart a strong bleach aroma. There is a limit to this process... at some point just 'airing it out' is the only way to really get rid of all odors and that might take several months of constant fresh air to achieve.

My suggested protocol:
1) Get it bone dry
2) Alternate ozone machine and the 2x strength Febreeze(Put in an enclosed space such as the garage and let run on a timer. You do not want to be in the room with this.)
3) Air it out as much as possible until satisfied

Good luck!!

MikeW wrote: just remember that ozone is toxic.

So the layer of it around the earth is going to kill us? Sounds like a party
I mean, I have always noticed a direct link between people who breathe and people who die

Tuba Guy wrote:

MikeW wrote: just remember that ozone is toxic.

So the layer of it around the earth is going to kill us? Sounds like a party
I mean, I have always noticed a direct link between people who breathe and people who die

The world isn't as black and white as we might wish.

Water is great in moderation.. too much and you'll drown.

Ozone up high is great.. down low in small doses makes the air smell 'fresh'.. like after a spring rain or when standing next to a waterfall.. too strong a concentration it BURNS your eyes and mucus membranes and causes a very intense unpleasant headache. A few minutes in the same room as an an ozone generator *will* make you leave the area. It's not subtle. It basically bleaches the air.

Probably too late for this but...
You could use a wet/dry shop vac to get the excess water out. While I never tried it on sousaphone case, I did use it on 6 sofa cushions that got soaked with water from a sudden leak. It worked very well and got a huge amount of water. Putting them outside after the vac treatment finished the job and they're still on the sofa with no hint of mold, mildew or odor. Also used the vac to get some water out of the sofa under the cushions but not too much there because we moved the whole thing pretty quickly.
sorry I didn't see this sooner
Pete

Ozone = O3. It's just three Oxygen molecules, which is a notably unstable arrangement.. it wants to give up an Oxygen molecule and fall back to O2. The reason it's great up high is because it attaches to 'incoming nasties'(clearly scientific term) before they make it to us. Ozone generated down where we are at the surface has a very brief shelf life... it basically goes away as quickly as it's formed. It never makes it to the 'ozone layer' where it would offer protection.

In other words, conflating the smell of a fresh spring rain with freon and politics makes no sense.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am using quite a few of them. The plywood, at this point in its life was not affected. Quite a marvelous case so I don't want to replace it. I even had all of the original 1926 parts for the sousaphone, the bits, the neck, the mouthpiece, the lyre and the swab thing. Thanks for all who responded. So far, mildew has not appeared and it is dry finally. Still open though in my dry garage.