General Cleaning/Maintainence

Have y'all ever had to do more than a high temp burn to clean up the inside?  

We moved a while back, and the egg has gotten a lot less use. Without a covered patio, I also had to put a cover on it for the first time. I peeked inside there recently and the whole thing was covered with mold. I know that's not a problem; a good fire kills anything. I did a 900°+ burn last night, though, and when I checked on it this morning the mold is gone, but I didn't see the white ceramic that I expected to. Some parts where spotless—the guts and the platesetter—but the area just above the fire ring was still kinda caked, albeit lightly, with dry, hard, sooty gunk. 

Again, I'm not worried about mold or my health at all. To paraphrase Jacques Pepin, anything that can survive those temperatures deserves to kill me. But I do want to get it pretty spick and span before I start smoking again for the second half of tailgating season. Anyone ever take a brush to the inside? Any general tips/tricks on polishing the grill up?