Sometimes the simple joys in life mean the most.

To Jack Nichols, the thing he wanted most was to drive his old 1967 Malibu his wife had purchased to be remodeled. While he had wanted to refurbish the car during his retirement, Nichols was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given only a short time to live.

His brother, Ron Johnstone, and nephew, Mike Johnstone, took up Nichols’ wish in October and haven’t looked back since.

“Dad (Ron Johnstone) came back one day and said (Jack’s) only wish was to drive his car,” Mike Johnstone said. “He’s had this car for over 11 years. It was going to be a retirement project for him to do. So, I thought about it a couple days and I told Dad to call him up and tell him I would come down and look at it.”

Afterward, he told them he would do it, and got to work as fast as he could.

“I knew I had the ability to do it,” Johnstone said. “I honestly didn’t think it was that unreasonable of a wish for a guy’s last wish. All he wants to do is drive his car.”

Johnstone, Auto Credit service manager, said his employer, Kyle Schults, allowed him to bring the vehicle in and begin the remodel without hesitation. He and his co-workers have been working at restoring the car ever since.

When they first got it, they looked over the car and made up a list of all the improvements that needed to be made: a complete trunk pan, patch panels on the front, rear quarter panels, a whole new interior, repainted dash and refurbished floors.

The seats were also reupholstered.

“If you’re doing a restoration, it’s probably 85 percent a complete restoration,” Johnstone said. “We built a custom exhaust for it, and we got wheels and tires for it. It’s been pretty much a complete rebuild as far as the body and the interior.”

He said there were spots that looked great on the car, but also other spots where there were holes and rust.

“It was a lot of welding, and we built a lot of the pieces ourselves,” Johnstone said. “It was rough to begin with.”

The crew replaced many parts and pieces in the car and repainted it, taking it from rusty to a classic red beauty. Johnstone said the important thing was to make sure his uncle was able to drive the car in its full glory.

He said Nichols did come down and help out a little, but at a certain point, Johnstone and his wife told him he couldn’t come down anymore because it would ruin the surprise.

“It really did him good,” he said. “He’s been texting me and asking if he could come down, but I told him ‘You’re not allowed.'”

Ron Johnstone, Nichols’ brother, said it was not out of character for his brother to want to tinker with a car as he has always enjoyed fixing things and has owned a farm as well. Recently, Johnstone said his brother has become a Christian and has devoted himself to prayers, which he is very thankful for.

The car, after being redone, was delivered to Nichols on his birthday Wednesday and was complete with a license plate which read, “Jack’s Jalopy.” Between the black leather interior, the gleaming new paint job and the shining chrome, the car was completely transformed.

Mike Johnstone said his uncle hugged him when they delivered the car. For his birthday, about 40 people were there to see the delivery and enjoy cake and ice cream to celebrate.

“He loved it,” Johnstone said. “He was just elated. Everything went better than I expected. He hugged me, he cried – he was ecstatic.”

After a few photos, Nichols took the car for a drive.

Johnstone said the project wouldn’t have been completed without the help of his co-workers, Tom Smith and Travis Scott, and his employer, Kyle Shults.

“That’s really where the story began when Dad told me about the car,” he said. “We had just opened up our new facilities here, and I went up to Kyle and I told him what was going on, and he said, no hesitation, ‘Bring it here.’ No one has batted an eye or complained.”