As a non native English speaker, I have always been fascinated by idioms and specific vocabulary use.
I encountered the term bubba very regularly on this forum and started wondering where it came from.
A quick google search did not bring any meaningful results.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, would anybody have some insight on where 'bubba' is coming from?

 

He's the car owner that doesn't care about doing something the correct way. He takes shortcuts by not using the correct parts, instructions, or taking safety into consideration. He justifies his repairs by thinking "it's good enough for now".

It usually takes more time correcting a "bubbaized" repair than doing it right the first time.

 

Yea basically weird repair jobs like bondo on a fiberglass car.

Wiring that makes you scream WTF or duct tape to fix a seatbelt.

 

I like to think of bubba as BUBble gum and BAling wire - all you need to fix a car (and maybe some duct tape!)

 

When I was in my teens the fastest street car was owned by the best tech and wrencher I ever met a fellow named "Bubba".

When I got on this forum saw everyone using "Bubba" and had no clue what they were trying to express at first, I learned it means the same as "jury rigged"

Jury - rigged: : made in a quick or careless way : not built or designed well.

I like the term "Bubba" about as much as I like "'vert" for a convertible, or "C" then a number for what camp Corvette you are talking about.

 

Bubba,

Our friend, why?

1. Would you rather wait on the side of the road broken down, waiting on a "date correct" alternator? Or have Bubba get you rolling after a trip to AUTO ZONE and be at your destination drinking a "cold one"??

2. Would you rather spend$XX,XXX,XXX on your restoration, OR take a few shortcuts and make your mortgage payment this month???

3. Would you rather go to HOME DEPOT and buy a few grade 8 bolts you need OR spend 20 times that much for "head mark" correct bolts from a VERY speciality vendor???

 

When you start to get a little experience and know how, you see some of the old things you did and sometimes classify those as 'bubba'

 

I for see a moderate sized mob of angry purists donning NCRS "rules" T-shirts and burning effigies of you while heading your way with large amounts of tar and feathers.....

 

I think Bubba is getting a bad rap.

Bubba has kept more cars on the road than most other people.

Bubba has developed many cost effective repair processes.

Bubba has revolutionized the concept of recycling, introducing many non-auto related items into the auto repair business.

A "Bubba" repair is not necessarily a bad repair, it just may not be a "factory correct" or "approved" repair method.

Bubba has developed many ingenious solutions to otherwise difficult problems.

Rather than scorn, Bubba deserves recognition for the creative and unorthodox repair methods that we have all observed.

I say...Give Bubba the credit and recognition he / she deserves.

Go Bubba!

 

I see it as negative reference towards Southern Americans - at least in the beginning.
This is because of the Southern tendency to give the nickname Bubba to a male child -usually to an eldest son, or one who has a first name that is considered old fashioned or awkward. This fits with the common media representation of the Southerner who is backward and uneducated.

On this forum, the term is more generalized to mean someone who is clueless, lazy, or cheap, and makes repairs in an unsafe or un-workman like manner.

But to some - the work doesn't have to be shoddy, just not exactly how the car left the plant. I might be called Bubba in this regard because I drive and modify my car to meet my needs.

AND, I am not sensitive to the name because people call me Bubba - they dont, or because someone in my family goes by that name -they dont. But I am from the South.

 

I have often wondered if a lot of people on this forum would call ME Bubba............

 

Bubba is the pseudonym of anyone who is not you, who didn't do "it" (the repair, replacement, or alteration) the way you would have.

 

He lives by the same credo as me - if it cannot be fixed by a hammer, it's an electrical problem

 

ok, one more,...

Would you rather be like me and have an "ORIGINAL" 47 yr old, rubber F70x15 spare tire in the carrier when you have a flat on Sunday afternoon with the wife on a back country winding road OR... have Bubba's 15" galvanized boat trailer tire as a spare which was bought last week???

 

I feel better already.........

 

In the context of this forum, I'd argue that "Bubba" is closer to the person who repairs/maintains a vehicle incorrectly rather than not to NCRS/factory original condition (e.g. aftermarket alternator vs. factory would not be "Bubba"). An example of "Bubba" working on my car is the home electrical caps used for wiring my reverse lights like below :

 

Or the way they wanna preach that YOU should do the repair,

I seem to see different people have different definitions to what "Bubba" means on here,

1, Some seem to believe it's a disparaging term purists/NCRS folks use to belittle any non numbers matching by the book repair.

2, I see some that are like me see it as a replacement for "jerry rigged" in that I was seeing it as things "hack jobbed" and not done well.

3, To my happy surprise I see a really cool group who see it like what "jalopy" used to mean, doing it well with what you have, a working fix that isn't by the book but works.
( See number 1 for what purists will think of this definition )

So here is a picture that I find "hack job" years ago when I posted it much of what I considered hack job was defended,
Lets see what people think of the work in the picture today?

 

I know every argument just has to drag NCRS, purists, etc into it. I will argue NCRS correctness has absolutely nothing to do with the use of the word. My understanding of the slang word "Bubba" in this context is someone who did cheap, nonprofessional looking backyard fixes. Sometimes it's "jerry-rigged" (that term also has a much more sinister alternative) and sometimes its basically a duct-taped cheap repair. "Bubba" is obviously a sourthern /hick/ hayseed slur, much like "Gomer."

However, I'd also mention to the OP, who is unfamiliar with US slang, that "Bubba" is also slang used in other conversations in reference to a potential cellmate in a prison setting.

 

I didn't drag ncrs fellows into it in any bad way and likely should have left my number 1 at "purists" but I have seen the term bubba used by people who perfer bone stock to belittle how someone did not stock repairs here even if the repair was good, and most NCRS guys do hate non stock repairs of any kind.

As far as jerry rigged, it comes from jury rigged having to do with fast make it work repairs on sails, after that some assigned the "sinister" connection to it ( if it's what I fear you are suggesting ) but I really can't in limited google hunts find that there was ever a connection to the terms origin...

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (2003) says that jerry-rigged goes back only to 1959. It speculates that the term is an amalgam of jury-rigged (dating to 1788) and jerry-built (dating to 1869). The jury in jury-rigged doesn't involve a panel of one's peers, however; it means "makeshift" and appears in the Middle English jory saile meaning "makeshift sail." The term jury-rig thus means (according to the Eleventh Collegiate): to erect, construct, or arrange in a makeshift fashion.

Of course many words will have a sigma we attach during our lifetimes that can't be shook.

I also grew up thinking Bubba was like saying "pal" like "Hey Bubba lets run and get a Coke and hot dog"

 

I don't use the term myself but understand the implied meaning. Same with 'Jerry-rigged' which I also find to be equally unflattering when you understand the initial idea behind it.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...term=jerry-rig

I have used the term 'Mickey-Moused' since I was a kid and still do to this day.

Some folks use their ingenuity in a way that makes sense even if the repair could have been done with factory pieces. And others make repairs that truly have you wonder how the car still runs and/or did not burn down to the ground. But in all honesty if something has been half-arsed in an ignorant way then it deserved to be called out.

My two cents,

Lee