Here and other Ford-related forums, some users refer to scruby products as “scrubs” or “scruby.” It seems pretty common, but I have never found an explanation of the origin of this term. Does anyone know where it came from?

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

Scrub is a part of good hearted banter among car guys. I'm sure the first time I heard it referring to a che.y was from Jerry Christenson and it certainly was a passion of his. I believe if his race car hauler, a Ford, broke down on the side of the road he would refuse a tow by a gm product. In the day we all had our preferences and continually looked for gags to pull on owners or supporters of any other brand. I've been a Ford guy since my first Y-Block, a 57 convertible bought around 1960. Over the years I've been involved with dirt track and drag racing and have worked on and even driven some non Ford cars. My second street car was a 1941 Che.y 4 door sedan. All original and in very nice condition. Guy slid through a stop sign on snow and totaled. I then had a 1951 with a gmc 6 cylinder engine with 3 carbs. So I'm not a novice when it comes to scrubs. So I say pull up your big boys pants. If you choose not to use the term that is fine with me. I choose to use it in the same way as I did 70 years ago and most of the time in between. A lot of my scrub friends back in the racing days also wanted to run Fords but the cost was in most cases prohibitive. From the 50's on the hot rod industry and car magazines had an affair with GM that influenced our hobby's. Brand X parts are plentiful and cheap because of their overwhelming supply. That is why building a Ford or MOPAR engine is so pricey. I won't get into the falsified history of drag racing and NASCAR pushed by these same publishers. That's another story altogether.

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Exactly.  I grew up on a Ford street.  All my friends raced Fords.  By the time I got my driver's license, Ford had moved on to the FE engines.   As a teenager, I idolized guys with 390, 406 & 427 FEs, which seemed to be in everything with four wheels when I was a kid. My first street car was a 56 Ford with a Y-Block that I bought off a car lot for $300.  Bagging groceries wasn't a lucrative career choice, so my car didn't win many street races. Later when I started making money, I got into dedicated race cars.  It didn't take me long to figure out the way to go fast cheap was to own a scruby. I didn't abandon my love for Fords of all type. My TBird is a time machine.  Just starting up my Y-Block brings back all those memories, some good some bad.  This forum is about Y-Blocks as it should be. It's fun to poke fun at scruby's, but it's not serious.  If I want to get angry at something, I'll watch Toyotas on NASCAR.