Campervan Conversion Cost - How Much We Spent

Last Updated on 23rd September 2023

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Are you thinking of buying a van and converting it into a camper? Check out my ultimate guide to see our full campervan conversion cost from start to finish!

Owning and converting a campervan has been a dream of mine for many years now and my desire to buy a van and completely convert it into a fully functioning campervan was only cemented further when we realised just how much we adored van life in New Zealand and Australia.

In March 2020, when we arrived back in the UK from Vietnam after rushing home and abruptly ending our indefinite travels due to the Coronavirus pandemic, I started researching van conversions more and more and scouring the likes of Autotrader, Gumtree, eBay and more for vans that we could buy and convert ourselves. However, with prices ranging upwards of £15,000 for many vans that were an empty shell, we just couldn’t justify that kind of cost, especially during a pandemic.

So while we were “stuck” in the UK for the seemingly foreseeable, we resigned to the fact that we would just travel around the UK for the time being in our little Kia Picanto and stay in a tent, Airbnb or hotels while road tripping.

However, over the May Bank Holiday weekend, we’d gone for our regular daily walk and came across a 1997 Toyota Hiace van for sale outside somebody’s home. It was an absolute steal and I knew immediately that I had to have it. We knocked on the door, had a look around the van, took Matt’s stepdad back with us for a quick look at the engine and mechanical aspects of the van and within half an hour, we’d bought it and were the proud owners of our very own campervan that we were going to convert ourselves completely from scratch.

It took us five weeks and one day from the initial purchase of the van to full converted completion and our little Celeste (we named the van after the previous owner who clearly dearly loved it!) is now ready and raring to take us on many adventures around the UK and hopefully into Europe and beyond!

I’m SO proud of what we’ve accomplished in such a relatively short space of time and while converting a campervan certainly isn’t easy (or that cheap!), I think we’ve done an incredible job and we’ve managed to do everything on a budget.

How much does it cost to convert a van into a camper?

This post about how much does it cost to convert a van into a camper includes every single detail of what we spent converting the van from start to finish!

P.S. Just as a little disclaimer, we were very lucky to get our van for such an affordable price and the total cost of what we spent on our campervan conversion isn’t universal and costs will vary immensely between different van conversions!

The initial cost of the van – campervan conversion costs

The initial cost of the van - cost of converting a campervan

When we first saw the price of the van on our walk, I couldn’t believe that it was only £1,800. I don’t really know anything about cars or vans, but it looked in pretty good shape to me and considering the fact that it’s older than both of us, I thought the little Toyota Hiace was in very good condition.

If you search for similar vans on the likes of Autotrader or eBay, you won’t find many for less than £5,000 and many of them actually sell for upwards of £8,000, so we both knew that we were incredibly lucky to find a van like this for such an affordable price.

There were still a few things that needed doing to it and a few parts were broken and needed fixing, but for the initial price of the van, I’m very pleased that we got it for the price we did.

Once we had fully converted the van, we got the cambelt changed (it wasn’t actually broken, but apparently you’re supposed to change them before they even get the chance to break – see, I don’t know anything about vehicles!) and we also got the rear fog light fixed as well. We were originally quoted £50 more for the work on the van, so when we went to pick it up and pay on collection, we were so happy that it was actually much less than we thought!

Total cost for the van: £1,800

Total cost for the cambelt change and fixing the rear fog light: £246.66

Tax and insurance for two people for one year

We always knew that tax and insurance weren’t going to be insanely cheap and even though we’ve both been driving for seven years and had no claims on any of our previous insurance policies, we still have to pay a pretty hefty amount to be insured.

However, insurance is something that I’d never go without (largely because it’s a legal requirement!), so to us, it was worth paying whatever we had to, especially on a van as old as ours and on a project that we’ve both put a lot of time and effort into.

Tax for one year – £280
Insurance for two 23 year olds with breakdown cover for one year with Admiral – £703.51

Total cost for tax and insurance with breakdown cover for two people for one year: £983.51

Building materials – campervan conversion cost

We converted the entire van ourselves, with a lot of help from Matt’s stepdad (who’s a building whiz!) and my grandma who helped us a lot with the soft furnishings of the build.

As we didn’t have to pay any labour costs (just rewards in beer for Matt’s stepdad!), we managed to keep the actual build costs pretty low as we only had to buy the building materials such as wood, screws, brackets, drawer runners and more.

The wood was the most expensive building material that we bought, but as all the benches and kitchen are made almost entirely out of wood, we were happy to oblige the cost of it. We bought all the wood from B&Q (honestly, the number of trips we made there, we should have become members!) and the rest of the items were bought from Screwfix, Wickes, Amazon and eBay.

For the curtains in the kitchen that holds everything together, we actually used old curtains that Matt’s mum had in her loft from years ago, so we cut them out and made fabric “doors” for the back of the kitchen to hold everything in place. We also used the same material

Wood – £160.31
Screws – £3.21
Brackets – £38.54
Hinges – £4.43
Hooks for tables (vine eyes) – £2.47
Wing nuts – £2.80
Drawer runners – £16.40
Foam – £81.21
Table leg – £12.48
Sink tap – £12.78
Hose pipe for sink – £6.94
Spray glue for window blinds – £4.45

Total cost for building materials for the van: £346.02

Soft furnishings – campervan conversion cost

Soft furnishings - converting a campervan costs

We actually spent very little on soft furnishings such as bedding, an actual duvet and pillows as we bought it all from B&M.

It’s not exactly the quality of The White Company, but I’m more than happy with the quality of it all, especially the duvet cover which is so soft and silky and incredibly cosy!

We may also add a few extra decorative cushions and blankets to the van as we enter autumn and winter to make it extra cosy and warm, but for now, these soft furnishings are more than homely enough.

Duvet – £15
Pillows – £6.99
Duvet cover (incl 2 pillowcases) – £10
Bottom sheet for bed – £5.99

Total cost for soft furnishings: £37.98

Kitchen equipment

We were actually pretty lucky that Matt’s mum gave us a lot of her old cutlery and utensils that she doesn’t use anymore, so we didn’t have to buy absolutely everything from scratch. In terms of mugs, we’re actually using our travel mugs that we’ve collected in different cities and countries around the world over the years which I think adds a bit of extra special something to the travel element of van life!

We did still buy things like plates, cups, bowls, a frying pan and more as we wanted all new things for these items. We also had to purchase actual camping equipment like a coolbox that essentially performs like a fridge as it can be plugged into both a car cigarette lighter and a proper UK plug outlet as well.

We also bought a 2 ring gas camping stove which comes with two stainless steel burners and a downwards-facing burner with a toaster tray and grill, as well as a 2L whistling kettle, a gas bottle refill (we already had a bottle that Matt’s grandad gave us) and then instead of an actual sink which was going to cost upwards of £60, we just bought a mixing bowl that was less than £12 and made our own sink!

Coolbox – £69
2L kettle – £6
Gas camping stove 2 ring – £54
Mixing bowl (for the sink) – £11.95
Gas bottle refill – £20
Cups (4 pack) – £4
Tea towels (4 pack) – £3
Dustpan and brush – £1.50
Frying pan – £8
Pot – £6
Plates (4 pack) – £6
Bowls (4 pack) – £6
2x10L Jerry can for water – £18.95

Total cost for kitchen equipment: £214.40

Miscellaneous items – campervan conversion costs

The miscellaneous items section of this post reflects the additional purchases that we made for the van build, but they didn’t really fit into any other category.

For example, we actually bought a Go Outdoors membership discount card for £5 as we were buying a good few things from there including the camping stove, coolbox, kettle, hookup mains kit and more. By getting a £5 discount card that gives you a membership discount for a year, we actually saved a whopping £77, so if you’re planning to make a few purchases from Go Outdoors and the savings equates to more than £5 with a discount card, it’s well worth getting one!

I’ll be talking much more about the entire process of our campervan build in an entirely dedicated post, but as we made pretty much every single aspect of the van ourselves entirely from scratch, we also had to build everything separately to make the things we wanted for the van. For example, we decided to make our own black-out stick-on “blinds” instead of buying curtains so that we would save money and so that we could tailor the blinds to each window so that they were completely blacked out.

To do this, we bought metres of black cotton material, insulation foil, suction cups and spray glue to stick everything together. We also bought a cargo net that we’ve attached to the roof of the van so that we have a place to store the blinds during the day and we also purchased small dome mirrors to stick on the side mirrors of the van so that we can see better while driving.

Go Outdoors discount card – £5
Hookup mains kit – £25
Dome mirrors – £3.99
Black cotton material for blinds – £17.94
Suction cups – £10.50
Windscreen repair kit – £4
Glue for window materials – £4.48
Sink sealant – £6.99
Bottle regulator – £6.75
Velcro – £14
Cargo net – £7.79
Insulation foil – £29.99

Total cost for miscellaneous items: £156.43

Additional purchases and finishing touches

In terms of the additional purchases and finishing touches to the van, we bought a waterproof, easy-to-clean marble wallpaper that we’ve stuck to the top of the kitchen counter to act as a more attractive worktop space, rather than just leaving it as plain white wood.

When we first got the van, Matt was adamant that we had to get LED coloured lights to stick up around the van that changed colour and while I wasn’t convinced that they were a good idea at first, as soon as we put them up and had a play around with the different light settings, I agreed that it was money well spent!

Led coloured lights (X2) – £15.58
Marble wallpaper for kitchen – £7.88

Total cost for finishing touches: £23.46

Campervan conversion cost – the TOTAL

So, how much did we spend converting a campervan? In total, for absolutely EVERYTHING, we spent…

£3,788.46 – campervan conversion costs

That’s right from the initial purchase of the van, tax and insurance, all the way to the little finishing touches such as LED lights, cargo net and even the tiny little screws we had to buy to fit the wood together!

I’m honestly SO proud that we managed to do a full campervan conversion on such a budget and I’m eternally grateful that we were able to make our van life dreams come true. It certainly wasn’t the easiest 5 weeks, but it was well worth it in the end and the fact that we did it on such a budget and did almost absolutely everything ourselves feels so rewarding.

Of course, this was just our personal experience of converting a campervan, depending on your needs, wants and budget, you might be able to convert a campervan for less, or for much more, it all just depends on your own individual circumstances.

I hope this post about how much money we spent converting a campervan has given you some insight and hopefully inspiration into the kinds of costs you can expect to find when completing a campervan conversion and I hope you found it useful!

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Did you think it would cost more or less to convert a campervan? Is a campervan conversion something you’d like to do one day? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram at @imjustagirl_16.