Nice!!! I love the look of gold parts on Kuwie E.T's.

You did an awesome job.

Here is the ad that is my inspiration:

Here's the start of mine.

I have maybe 30% - 40% of the parts collected so I'm on my way.

Good job chipmunk!  Hey aren't you misssing an "I" in chpmunk???  JK I'm sure there is a reason.  Anyway, welcome to the site and good job on the build. 

Hey Great bike.
Is it just the photo's or have you done the bike in bright red?
The ET's were actually a deep candy red like mnwniko's bike or is it just the photo's?

mnwniko, that photo you like is from the add made before they released the ET Looptail bikes. It's actually a KZ frame and not a loop tail. The full add had a kid looking through the blinds at ET flying past the moon and the kid was the son of the guy that supplied the bikes to the Studio for the movie.
They never actually made an ET with gold parts for sale, but they sure do suit the bike.
One of the KZ bikes in Elliott's colour scheme was supplied for the movie with gold rims but they never used it in the film. They went for black rims instead. There are back lot pics of it with Henry Thomas riding it though.

I'm in the process of restoring one of each of the three models that they sold back in the day. The two versions of the looptail ET and an Apollo ET. And one like in the add above with gold bits. I'm also doing a replica of Elliott's movie bike. I have even got hold of the exact same basket (a California milk crate of the time) from a guy that was involved in the movie.

5 ET's on the go at once, it's getting extremely expensive...

Last edited by Gooser (2008-11-02 4:20am)

Yep your bike does look cool, the gold just looks great on these.
I was at Waza's house Saturday believe it or not. His ET is a great looking bike.
Elliott's bike in the movie wasn't a loop tail, they didn't exist until after the movie came out. All the bikes used in the movie were modified KZ-2's. If you pause the movie you will see it's a KZ frame.
That is why the pic above from mnwniko's post is a KZ, it advertises the coming soon ET bike but they had no looptails ready for the add.
They only made the loop tail because the all cromo KZ frame would have been too expensive to sell to most kids. That's why the looptail was only high tensile steel, so it was cheap to build.
There is a lot of stuff on Jamies site that is sooooo wrong it's not funny, Waza and I were discussing that yesterday. Things like the KE-1, the first Kuwahara never had a model designation it was never called a KE-1. Even Kuwahara's Grandson has said that in an interview. I've seen official records showing the KE-1 was the model designation given to the Chrome version of the ET looptail in 1982.
Also the story about Kuwahara being the bike of choice for the movie is a bit of an urban myth.
The Special Effects guys originally made scale models of Schwinn bmx bikes and did filming using them. They did the flying scenes etc. It was only after the Schwinn deal fell through and Schwinn ultimately declined to be involved with the movie that Kuwahara was bought in on the deal. Then the Special Effects guys ditched the Schwinn bmx models and had to make Kuwahara ones.

Lot's more stories to tell but I'll leave that for another time.

thats a superb example of an iconic bike, excellent job

Thanks JT Racing AUST, and DOMPHIPPSIO!I'm glad your guys like it.

Great build! Very nice Kuwi

Thanks Everyone.. This build still gives me the Chill, every once in a while.  Time to repolish it, too collecting dust.. LOL!  Happy Holidays Guys.

great build ET Phone Home this bike rules

Love these things....