Jo-Anne & Dan
Hi, we’re Jo-Anne and Dan, the faces behind The Wright Way Round! We bought our “part converted” Mk7 Transit in May 2021 after months of researching how to convert our own. We soon realised a few fundamentals were wrong, and set off on a journey to convert the van while we waited for restrictions to lift so we could get married!
About Jo-Anne & Dan
Jo-Anne is a full time accountant, and part time professional organiser. Dan works in IT for a local manufacturing company. Before we bought the van we had zero tools or experience, just a will to learn amd get out on adventures. We got married in September 2021 after 2 failed attempts we were third time lucky. We finished the van in September 2022 and took a two week honeymoon around Scotland!
About our Mk7 High Top
We bought our white Mk7 LWB High Top van in May 2021. It had been rustically restored to transport trail bikes and be a man cave on wheels.
It had the basics… but they’d all been done without research. Within 48 hours of bringing the van home, the insides were stripped and sorted – most bits went to the local recycling center and we salvaged what we could for the restoration.
In August 2021 the build went on hold as we realised we were actually getting married in 6 weeks, and hosting the party at our home so all focus turned to the wedding and the house.
Building remained on hold until spring 2022 due to bad weather, and by September we were ready take go on our maiden voyage!
Jo-Anne & Dan’s Top Tips
Make sure your foundation is solid before you spend any money, have a mechanic check over for rust (especially on a transit) and other potential issues before you buy your base. Any investment in a base van with issues could be a costly mistake.
There is lots of conflicting information online about how to convert a vehicle into a self-build camper. Our biggest tip is to make sure before you commit to any ideas, that you do a few basic searches to make sure it is the right way to do something. Our insulation had been installed in the wrong order and with the rising cost of materials it cost us a lot to put it right, HOWEVER we had negotiated the van price with this in mind and budgetted for a self build so we were too phased by this.
There is no right or wrong layout. Every van is unique to its owners and what works for some might not work for others! Our van already had windows and a diesel heater fitted, so we had to negotiate around this with our design and it gave us limited options on our layout but we were able to work around it.
Don’t just use camper and caravan supplies. There are many things (like battery or USB operated) that can be repurposed in a van. For example our lighting is not linked to our battery, and
Where to find us!
We hope you find this website helpful! We’ve tried to compile a list of resources and helpful information we wish we had had when we were first starting out. Please let us know if you thinknsomething is missing that you’d love to see