Classic & Vintage - help identifying an old JCPenney road bike

I've been riding my dad's old road bike for the last couple weeks. Its official designation is a JCPenney 10spd 27" Ultralight. I was curious about who actually manufactured it. My dad tells me he bought it around 1976 or 1977. It has Shimano Tourney center-pull brakes, a Shimano Tourney rear derailer, a Shimano Uniglide Titlist front derailer, and an SR stem. Doing some research (with the help of Sheldon Brown's website) I'm pretty sure this is an entry-level road bike based on the components. Still, it seems like a worthwhile bike to hold onto for awhile as it has clipped pedals and aluminum rims.

Here are some pictures I took. I can take some more if you want closer or different views. I also have the frame code on hand if that would help.
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/2244/dscf0001zr9.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0001zr9.jpg)
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3425/dscf0003tr8.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0003tr8.jpg)
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/9804/dscf0004fy0.th.jpg (http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscf0004fy0.jpg)

any ideas on who manufactured it? there's some surface rust on the front fork and some of the components, but it seems to be cleaning up pretty well with some chrome cleaner so i think it's worth keeping.

My dad also has a JC Penny bike. It's fairly similar to yours, except his actually has rear disc brakes.

Yeah, pretty much every bit of research on this bike has led me to 10 speeds with disc brakes. the closest I came to any info about the manufacturer was a recall alert on a different JCPenney bike's crank made around the same time. That bike was made by Huffy, but my frame number isn't even similar to the Huffy format. So I'm still clueless.

I had one of those, it was made in '79, IIRC, and it was indeed a Huffy frame. I forget where I found that out, but when comparing it to an actual Huffy of the same era, it was identical. It was a decent enough rider, but kinda heavy. I got mine at a co-op for $10 and put somewhere on the order of 15k miles on it.

Mine came apart, though. Literally. That weird tack-welded joint in front of the rear dropouts rusted through, and the seat stays broke off the frame when I hit a pothole.

Thanks for the info. Do you know if Huffy quality in the 70s, in general, was any better than it is now? I know Serottas were rebranded as Huffys at one point, but I guess that's the exception to the rule.

Well, FWIW, I see a lot more '70s-mid '80s Huffy bikes than I do, say, '90s Huffy bikes. Except for the rust issue I had with mine, it was a decent quality bike, definitely a sight better than today's Walmart special Huffys. Then again, pretty much any bike that has survived for 30 years is a decent quality bike, when you think about it...