What’s included in a half cut?

Half cuts come in different levels of ‘dress’.

Sometimes parts will be stripped off the half cut before it leaves for Australia, and other times parts will be stripped off by the importer to be sold separately.

Exterior

If you’re lucky the entire front half of the car will be intact, including the headlights and the front bumper.  However, if the car has special headlights (especially projector headlights) that weren’t available on non-JDM models, they’ll most likely be taken.

Bonnets are often damaged during transport, and some will be better than others.  Bonnets that are different to standard (such as the Toyota GT-Four) are more sought after, and getting one of these can be a nice bonus.

Brakes

The front brakes are commonly left in a half cut, which can be a great bonus especially if the brakes are bigger and better than those available on the Australian model equivalent.

If you’re converting a vehicle of the same type you can also upgrade to the improved braking package, otherwise you should be able to sell the brakes to recoup some costs.

Interior

Half cuts generally have fairly complete interiors, but the condition and quality can vary, especially if your half cut had been left outside exposed to the elements for an extended period of time.

The steering wheel is generally included, along with the stereo unless it was something special that the exporter or importer has already removed.

JDM cars often feature some nice interior goodies that the Aussie versions don’t get, so again if you’re swapping into the same car, you can generally swap some of the better interior parts too.