I am in the process of restoring a Ranch Kettle from 1998 according to one of the vents. I tried using a pressure washer to clean a lot of the grease off but that did very little. I then started scraping it off. Based on what I have read, I need to get some degreaser or oven cleaner and some 0000 steel wool.
The lid has a couple of dents that I am not worried about. The edge lip is what I am concerned with. It looks like a bunch of rain water could just sit in there. Is that how it is supposed to be? I would go to a local store to just check out how it is supposed to be but of course they just sold the one they have had for years. This is what mine looks like:
I could do some surgery to bend it back into place but I don't know how it is supposed to be.
Here are some more photos before:
A couple during some work I did today: