A DIY Campervan Conversion Guide – How To Convert A Van For Under £3k [2024]

By Gemma Tedaldi | Published: 8th February 2021 | Updated: 4th January 2024

What started off as a big dream to hopefully have one day has turned into reality. We have been able to create our own little home on wheels and this DIY campervan conversion guide! Yet to be named, (if you have any ideas let us know), our little van is our gateway to more road trips and adventures exploring the UK and Europe.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. Neither of us has ever taken up a challenge quite like converting an old builder’s van into a campervan so there were lots of things for us to learn along the way – like sound deadening and melamine board cutting…

So, we decided to create this DIY campervan conversion guide to help out any future budding van converters who are in the same situation as we were, and hopefully answer some of the what-ifs and buts you may think of. Our little van is not perfect and it has got its quirks but we couldn’t be happier with the result!

Overall, it took us 12 weekends, (alongside working full time in the weeks), so from an empty van to a finished van in a total of 24 days and just under £3k! So how do you convert a van for under £3k? Here is our DIY campervan conversion guide on how;

Where To Start When Converting A Van

(hint: use our van conversion guide!)

How hard is it to convert a van?

Having gone from never done a van conversion to a completed van in a couple of months, (and through the autumn/winter, which we would not recommend, as it can get pretty chilly working in a bare van!) we can honestly say, it is not that hard to convert a van. Especially when you have a van conversion guide to go off.

You just need to be good at planning what needs to be done, and in what order and be willing to learn a few new skills along the way. Of course, you could end up with a van that needs a lot more initial work doing than ours did, but as long as you do your research, plan, and ask questions to others when you are stuck, converting a van is not hard.

Cost to do a campervan conversion – what kind of budget should you have?

We decided long before buying the van that we were not going to spend a massive amount of money on the van conversion. We were more than happy to do all of the work ourselves rather than buy in premade kits to install, and that will of course help with any budget.

As a rough guide, these are the costs we spent on getting the van from an empty shell to the finished article:

🚐 Insulation / Sound-deadening – £270

🚐 Windows – £420

🚐 Electrics – £730

🚐 Kitchen – £380

🚐 Storage – £375

🚐 Finishes – £600

You could potentially do it cheaper than that, depending on specific items you pick, for say the kitchen items or materials to make the storage out of, but we spent just under £3k on the whole conversion and are pretty happy with that.

Designing your campervan conversion layout

There is no wrong or right way to create a layout for a van conversion, you just need to be able to make the most of your space. Before you do anything on a van conversion, even before buying a van, start off by creating a list of must-have things, don’t want to have things, and would be nice to have things.

If in your must-have list you have included a fixed bed or something that takes up lots of floor space, you’re going to need a long wheel-base van. If you must have space for a shower/toilet as well as standing room, you will want a high top. You get the idea.

We got around needing either a long wheelbase or a high top, but you might want to have one of them. Make sure you get answers to at least these questions as it will help you get a good idea of what layout you’ll want in the long run –

🚐 How many people is it for?

🚐 Do you want to be able to stand up?

🚐 How much storage do you need? Take into account the kitchen, water, gas, bedding, clothing, food, etc then add in more!

🚐 Do you want a workspace in the van?

🚐 Do you want a shower/toilet inside the van?

🚐 Do you want the option to cook inside and outside the van?

🚐 Do you want a bed out all day and separate seating space or do you want a seating area that converts to a bed?

🚐 Do you want to be able to store large items such as bikes, a surfboard, or winter gear?

🚐 What kind of travelling do you want to do in the van – hot or cold climates, van lifer, off the beaten track, or maintained areas only?

Once you’ve got a rough idea of what you want out of your layout you can start researching and looking into the van you might want to buy, be it a long wheelbase, a high top or neither.

Choosing the van – What is the best van to convert?

The most difficult and important part of converting a van is the initial picking of said van. We trawled the internet and local garages for months before finding the van we decided on, taking into account mileage, running costs, and insurance costs. So be sure to get a good idea of what kind of size van you want before you start and how much you are willing to spend on the upfront van cost before the van conversion.

Be sure to ask yourself the following questions and it will help massively when you’re picking out your dream van –

🚐 How many miles are too many miles?

🚐 How much will it cost to refuel?

🚐 How much would your insurance/breakdown cover cost?

🚐 How much are you willing to spend on existing issues such as rust?

🚐 Has it got space for all of my must-have list?

🚐 What is the rough layout you want?

After you’ve decided on these then you should be able to find a van type, model, or make that would be your ideal purchase. Then it is just a case of finding a few for sale and going out for test drives, before putting your money where the van is and bringing your new home, home!

We were initially looking for a Mercedes Sprinter or a Volkswagen Transporter as they are really common vans to use for conversions, but after realising the ones with good mileage and no rust were a little out of our price range, (hell a LOT out of our price range!), we turned to look at the Renault Trafic, Vauxhall Vivaro, and Ford Transit Custom. We, of course, ended up with a Ford Transit Custom, and it is just the perfect size for what we wanted.

Step By Step DIY Campervan Conversion Guide

Step 1: Stripping the van & dealing with any rust

After picking your van and getting it home, the first thing to do, (after doing a little dance of joy and checking this van conversion guide), is strip it out of anything and everything you can to find out if there is any hidden rust. Ours had its original plywood lining and plastic floor covering, so once we had removed them, we could see just where any may have been.

Make sure you keep anything you remove out of the van so that it can potentially be used later down the conversion. We had some great ply panels that we reused/cut up for creating other things in the van.

Any big patches of rust you find that you didn’t find on choosing the van, may need more professional help with welding but if there are any small patches like there were in ours, you want to paint over them with Hammerite. This stuff is the bee’s knees when it comes to treating rust and keeping it at bay.

Step 2: Fitting Windows

Now, this is the scary bit, deciding on if you want to add any windows, how many windows, and where you want them, and then cutting some great big holes into the van!

As our van didn’t have any windows in the rear, we decided on adding two rear door windows, one fixed side window on the sliding door, and an opening window on the opposite side. (We bought all our windows from VanDemon as they came with all the fixing kit required and were a really good price compared to some of the other window suppliers out there).

Treat any edges that you cut with primer to ensure they do not rust in the future, then cover them with window trim and get ready for the nerve-wracking task of gluing the windows on. Prep and prime the windows and the van metal, then get sealing the cut hole edges in line with the window positions. (We found the Kiravans videos on window installation super helpful for this stage).

Be sure to get some non-stretch tape ready to hold the windows on in place when you fix them to the van and give the glass a good squidge when in place to make sure it is being held on. After a few hours, you should be ready to remove the tape and drive off into the sunset with your shiny new windows in place!

Step 3: Installing Insulation & Sound Deadening

Now one of the most important bits of converting a van and the bit that will be entirely hidden is the sound deadening and insulation. If you want to keep your van toasty warm in the winter and cool in the summer as well as have a reduced amount of noise and rattle from the van itself, then you really can’t scrimp on this step.

The first thing that needs to be put down should be the sound-deadening mat. You want to get this anywhere and everywhere you can reach to help with the rattle of the metal panels on the van when you drive along. This is especially useful if you plan on having the cab and the rear of the van open to each other as you will hear everything otherwise.

We used Dodomats for this as you can buy them in set-size boxes, which makes it much easier to move around the van with. You quite often see vans with a token couple of patches of sound deadening already, which is ok, but if you want a properly soundproofed van try and get it in as many places as possible.

After getting the sound-deadening mats in and on everywhere you can reach, next up is the thermoacoustic foam. It’s the same principle with this one, get it everywhere you can reach! This is your first layer of insulation, a foil-backed acoustic foam that helps with thermal transmission as well as partial sound deadening.

It’s a bit easier to install than the sound-deadening mats too as it doesn’t like to bend and stick to everything but where it should be going!

Finally, you want to add thermal fill insulation on top of all of the places that can take a bit of extra padding, i.e. in the thicker wall panels and on the ceiling. This just needs a bit of spray glue added to the fixing surface and a good press-on for it to be held in place. Then woohoo you’ve completed the insulation and sound deadening for the van!

Need some ideas of places to go in your van – check out our 5 Days in Exmoor Itinerary

Step 4: Electrics – Electricity options, lighting & small electronics

Another of the most important steps in the van build, (and in our DIY campervan conversion guide), and often the most brain-fuddling if you have no knowledge of wiring, is the electrics. You’ll need to be able to have power for when you are out and about camping and fancy some lights on or even some phone or camera charging. Basically, all your lighting, plugs, and USB sockets, as well as fridge and water pump power need to come off of some kind of power.

In order to get power to your living space, you have to have a leisure battery. There are other options such as a diesel generator but no one does that as it can be much more expensive and space-hungry. You can get a leisure battery from numerous places, just be sure to get one that will cope with what you want to be able to power.

We only have one, but we know others who have two or even three leisure batteries to make sure they never run out of juice! Your leisure battery then connects directly to your van battery.

Once you’ve got the leisure battery there are three main options for keeping it charged. We have all of these options in our van, so we have the flexibility to get power on the road when static parked up anywhere from the sun and from on a campsite:

🚐 Option 1. Split Charge Relay. This only charges the leisure battery when the engine is running, there are different variants for this, but we use a voltage-sensitive relay. If you have a newer van you must check if it has a smart charge system as your setup will need to differ from this.

🚐 Option 2. Solar power via solar panels fixed to the roof of the van. This is part of the 12v system, so we have it so that all of our lighting, water pump, and fridge can run off of our solar power. Free energy for the win!

🚐 Option 3. Site Hookup. This is part of the 240v system, but can also be used to top up your 12v leisure battery charge with the help of a battery charger. Basically, this is only used in situations where you are on a campsite with an electric hookup. Everything in the van will need to be powered from either the solar panel or split charge relay in order to work without being plugged in via a site hookup, but when you can use a site hookup it gives you instant juice.

On top of all the electrics to get power to your living space, you then need to think about lighting, plug and USB sockets, or anything you may want power to. Things like a fuse box, control panel, and inverter also need to be purchased so that you can wire everything together properly and safely. Low power consumption is the key here so be sure to check what you’re thinking of buying.

Don’t forget you will also need power to a water pump if you have a sink installed and to the fridge in order to keep things cool.

We have two different types of lighting in the van. Touch-sensitive 12v LED’s to the ceiling and LED strip lighting underneath our cupboards. The touch sensitivity is great for when you come back to the van and it’s dark as you don’t have to reach all the way around to the switch panel to turn a light on, so we would highly recommend them for the ceiling. The lighting strips are just a little bit of an extra we added to bring a bit of fun and mood lighting to the van, great when you can turn on the rainbow effect on a campsite!

You will then have to wire everything up, make sure everything is fused and doesn’t trip when you turn anything on etc. Please note – we are not the be-all and end-all of advice for the electrics, (or – van conversion guides), so if you need any more info on the wiring please do your research and ask for help. It’s not worth the risk if you are unsure!

Now to make sure you have got enough storage to house all of the electrics you want…

Step 5: Finishes – Walls, Flooring & Ceiling Options

The final finish of the van is another big step in the van conversion. You want to make it easily accessible to change things once it is all completed but also lovely enough that you will live with it!

🚐 Flooring – Floor-wise we added a 12mm thick plywood panel fixed down through the metal, to help create a more rigid base than just the bare metal and insulation. You can cut this out yourself but as we didn’t want the hassle of getting it perfect around the wheel arches we went to Custom Shop Designs, which was a godsend.

For the final top finish, we then went for vinyl which is easy to fix down with spray adhesive, so we could have a waterproof, slip-resistant finish, which also just happens to like quite nice too!

🚐 Walls – After saving the ply lining panels that had come with the van, we added 4-way stretch fabric to them as well as to the doors and rear door columns to not only hide the bare metal but have a finish that’s good enough to live with. Again it is super easy to do once you’ve done a couple of patches and is just a case of fixing with spray adhesive again. You can get 4-way stretch fabric from lots of conversion shops but we found it cheapest on eBay.

One thing to note, which we didn’t realise until after having some particularly bad rain one night, is that if you run your fabric up the doors past the seals then the seal to the van isn’t as sealed as it once was. (Could we say seal anymore?!).

This resulted in us getting a couple of patches of very damp, dripping fabric at the top of our doors. All we then did was trim the fabric back to be on the inside of the rubber seal trim and then the seal with the metal frame was back to normal so no more leaks! Call that a DIY campervan conversion guide hack.

🚐 Ceiling – We didn’t do much to the ceiling as there is very limited headroom in our van, but we went to Custom Shop Designs again for some 6mm plywood panels that we could put up to hide the insulation as well as fix our lighting through.

Be sure to treat these and any other wood that isn’t sealed in the van, with a form of mold deterrent as often when campervans aren’t used so much in the winter they can get a build-up of mold on timber surfaces. (We learned that the hard way…)

🚐 Bulkhead – We had wanted to keep our bulkhead for some form of privacy through from the cabin but figured we couldn’t due to limited space in the back. So after removing it and getting our kitchen unit height, we came up with a system where we could add more storage, get more privacy, and also keep some light coming through.

Behold our Ikea Skaddis boards! (Yes more Ikea but it is such a cheap option and really brings the space to life). With hooks, pegs, elasticated strips, boxes, shelves, and fabric containers what more could you want from a sometimes neglected bulkhead space?

Step 6: Storage solutions

Generally, your storage in the van will be limited to kitchen units and under the seating/bed. With a small van like ours, it is even more important to know how much storage you may require to hide some of the things you don’t want out on show day to day, i.e. the electrics, gas cylinder, hob, fridge, water etc.

So it really helps if, before you get stuck in with creating your dream layout, you roughly draw out your van and map out where the electrical items need to sit and how much space you’ll have leftover once they are all in place. Hint, you will be left with less than you think!

It is also worth thinking about if you want to keep your bulkhead in to separate the cabin and the living space, (assuming your van comes with a bulkhead). As mentioned previously, we originally wanted to keep ours for more privacy but when we started drawing out the kitchen/bed layout soon realised it was going to take up too much space.

Step 7: Bed design / Seating & Table

As our van is only small, our seating area and table are used to create our bed. Instead of buying anything off the shelf as we did with our kitchen, we opted for creating our own design out of melamine boards and dowelling it all together – neither of us having done any woodwork since school… Was it a bad choice, hell no!

We’ve learned a hell of a lot putting the van conversion together, but we wouldn’t have changed that for the world. It just means the next van conversion we do we will know all the tricks of the trade.

With the seats, we also wanted to create some extra storage underneath so added in some sliding door panels to the front. The melamine panels that sit closest to the rear doors are also easily removable should we ever need to get anything particularly long under the seating.

Now for the seating foam, we would highly recommend going to eFoam so you can pick and choose your foam style and create bespoke shapes of precut foam. As we are using the foam for seats as well as our bed we went for the recommended ‘high firm’ foam, and it is perfect.

We also got hold of some stockinettes to cover the foam with before adding our cushion covers. As your van cushions are highly likely to be a bespoke shape the best and cheapest way we found to get our cushions how we wanted is to get some bed covers and cut them up to create the flat patterns you need to stitch together your seating covers.

Not only is this cheaper but you’ve got much more freedom with what your final finish wants to be! Now to remember those textiles GCSE skills… Be sure to get some non-slip matting to put underneath the seat cushions when they are done as well as it stops them flying off the melamine in the night.

Step 8: Kitchen

We wanted lots of storage for the various kitchen items needed to camp self-sufficiently, the gas cylinder, water containers, and some of the electrical items (leisure battery, inverter, and various switches and panels) all needed hiding. With that in mind, we ended up going for a load of cheap Ikea carcasses that we didn’t mind chopping about if we needed to fit them alongside the wheel arches and getting some nice door fronts and handles to add to them.

This not only made it super quick to put together but easy to install as independent units. We then fixed them all down to the floor and through to each other to stop any movement and added our worktop, (again the cheapest Ikea one we could find!), having cut out the sinkhole ready.

If you want to stop your doors flying open when you’re driving along, (which ours did on our first trip in it fully kitted out, the fridge wanted to see the views we reckon…) this simplest solution to your problems is none other than a good old strip of Velcro! (Probably not what you were expecting from our van conversion guide aye!).

Kitchen items we would recommend:

🚐 Fridge – Dometic Tropicool, great size for 2 peoples worth of food, (we camped around Europe for 3 weeks with this fridge previously), and it has a plug-in for both 12v leisure battery and 240v site hookup.

🚐 Sink & Water Storage – Smev Dometic with 2 x 10l tanks – you can get combined sink and hob units but as we had limited worktop space and wanted the option of having the hob removable for cooking outside, we went for a separate sink and hob set up.

🚐 Hob & Gas – As already mentioned, we’ve gone with a portable hob and removable gas canister rather than a built-in one as we like the flexibility of cooking outside as well as in the van. It’s not much of a different setup to having the hob integrated, but means we get more worktop space to play within our little van.

(Be aware if you are planning to change your vehicle insurance over to be a campervan/home in the UK then you will be required to have a fixed cooking facility inside the van as of mid-2020)

Make sure you also have a mini fire extinguisher and smoke alarm/carbon monoxide detector too, you never know when you might need them.

Need some Europe inspiration for your van life – Where to go on a 3-week trip around Europe

Step 9: Water, plumbing and bathroom solutions – Do you need a bathroom in your van?

For our water storage, we have a large space underneath the sink in a cupboard where we can hold two 10-litre water containers. We generally fill one of these up with clean potable water and have the other as our wastewater collector. Then to make sure they don’t slide about whilst we are on the road we’ve just penned them in with some leftover OSB.

As we only have a small van and having a shower/toilet was not a priority for us we haven’t installed either in the main area of the van. We have the option for a solar shower that can be hung on the rear doors and use campsite or public toilets. There are a few toilet-tracking apps out there too but we haven’t had the chance to use any of them yet.

We do however know of some really clever conversions where the shower/toilet is hidden underneath the seating and a shower curtain can be hooked to the ceiling of the van to stop any water splashing out. Next time when we get a taller van that is probably the way we will go.

Step 10: Installing Everything

(the best bit on our DIY campervan conversion guide!)

One thing we highly recommend in this van conversion guide, especially if you have limited space to create your van, is to build and make everything you can outside of the van before adding anything in. This is because once you start putting things in you may soon realise that things need to go in in a certain order to hide, for example, cabling or edges of things.

Be sure to constantly check what you are making dry fits into the van though, you don’t want to get to the final fit-out and something be off-kilter!

You also want to make the components of the van as easily accessible as possible so that if you have a problem with anything down the line, you don’t have to rip out half your van to fix it. In our case wall panels, flooring and ceiling stuff wanted to go in first then the kitchen units and seating.

The electrics then followed that, with the exception of the site hookup, (which had to be drilled through our floor so before the seating went in), solar panel cabling, (which had to be drilled through our ceiling before the ceiling panel went on), and the lighting cabling, (which also had to be routed before our ceiling panel was fixed).

Basically, think of anything and everything you might want in your van and see how you can get it in without something else needing to be in first.

Optional Step 11: Final Touches

Now, these aren’t necessary to get the van in a condition to be lived in but adding some door panels covered in fabric for the under-seat sliding doors and ply door panels into and out of the van, as well as some nice seat cushions and a rug, really helps to pull the finished space together. To make it all feel a bit more homely ready for future adventures in your little home on wheels!

And there you have it, our DIY campervan conversion guide on how to convert a van to a campervan in a month for under £3k! Any questions about our conversion then do get in touch and we will try our best to help. We’re sure there are things that we did that could have been done in better ways or different ways but here’s to our first van conversion! 🚐