Campervan Diaries: Our first Camper

This blog was written by a past customer of ours. Her first hand experience of buying a campervan from Wildworx. 

Our First Camper

Our amazing Campervan was purchased from Wildworx Van Conversions and has been modified and converted over several years. We had a pop top roof installed first and then gradually added bit by bit to the conversion. All converted by the amazing team at Wildworx! 

My journey started last July 2019. We had been to Woolacombe Bay in the Summer holiday with our little girl Amy and our lovely fur baby Hollie. Staying at the Twitchen House park we rented a caravan and spent our time visiting all sorts of places. First on our list of things to do was visit The Milky Way Adventure Park (our daughter insisted we go here) the theme park was actually named the Large attraction of the year back in 2016 and it really didn’t disappoint!

My husband ferried Amy round all of the rides whilst I sat and had some quiet time with my kindle and an ice cream (I don’t do rides). Next on our agenda was to visit RHS Garden Rosemoor much to my husbands disappointment. I love flowers and so does my little girl, there was a rose garden with 2,000 rose plants, an arboretum, herb, fruit and vegetable gardens and an alpine house. iI was in heaven. We stopped for some tea and cake in the restaurant which was delicious and then headed back to our caravan to get ready for an afternoon at the beach. This holiday was brilliant, we spent most of our week at the beach but one day stood out in particular.

We were due to head home on the Saturday so Friday morning I had packed all the necessities and a full picnic bag and off we went to spend the whole day eating rubbish and relaxing in the sand. When we arrived around 11.30 the queues went back quite a while for parking, (our previous visits we walked but as we had all our gear and the Doggo we decided a quick trip in the car this time would be more suitable. As far as the eye could see there were Campervans. I have always been a huge Campvervan fan. My Dad owned one when I was a child and we had so much fun! Most weekends my Dad would pack the van and whisk us away to a nice location to spend the weekend playing and meeting new friends. I had never thought of purchasing one for myself until this day. Kids were getting their costumes on inside the vans, Dads were cooking bacon sandwiches in the car parks, Mums were reading under the awning with a cup of tea. This made my mind up and was my new goal. I would own one of these for our next Summer adventure.

Looking for a Campervan

It was now January and I had spent 6 months after our Adventure searching for a company that could help me bring my dream to a reality. My husband started to get a bit obsession with this and signed up to all of the forums to search for the best of the best. We live in Stratford Upon Avon so we needed somewhere reasonably local. We visited a few shows whenever they were on Camper Jam, Ultimate Dubs and the Adventure Overland Show to name a few. My husband actually started talking to someone on the T6 forum as this was the vehicle we really wanted and a gentleman had mentioned he recently had his Caddy carpeted, leisure battery installed and partially modified by a company just outside of Birmingham in Redditch called Wildworx. The location was ideal for us as it is only a 20 minute drive but I wanted to know more about them first. My husband spent quite a lot of time on this forum and discovered that his new VW friend had re booked in with them for some paintwork, spoiler, lowering and a sliding window. I loved all the ‘funky’ vans we saw in Devon and couldn’t imagine having a plain jain van. I had a look on their website and the reviews and liked what I saw so we contacted them.

My Experience

When I called Wildworx I was greeted by Katie who was one of the directors. She was very friendly and you could tell she knew what she was talking about. I explained what I wanted from a van, it had to have a small cooker and sink and ideally a pop top roof. Initially I was looking for just modifications, we were going to buy a van and maybe have it converted then modified.

She said that she would be happy to look for a van for us and send over some suggestions via email or phonecall to which I obliged! So far I was thrilled. We carried on our search online to see if we could find something suitable for our needs. Within a week Katie called me back with 3 suggestions. They all sounded great but one in particular grabbed my interest. It was a T6 Highline that had been carpet lined, sink, cooker, gas tank, bed and leisure battery already installed by it’s previous owner who enjoyed Wild Camping with his wife, I believe he was selling because he and his partner were looking to purchase a T6.1 upon its release.

The van was a 17 plate in White  (this was the colour I wanted) and was fairly local in Solihull. I was keen to find out more so followed the link Katie had sent over. I was pleased to see that in the advertisement he had listed all the brands/products used and listed receipts for parts etc. I was keen to view this van! We had been to see a few but none ticked all of the boxes. Upon viewing I fell in love! It needed some minor things sorting, the wheels needed refurbing, the bumper had a small scuff and there was a minor scratch on the sliding door. This was a very small price to pay as the cost of the van was very fair. It had done low milage at 15k and had been serviced with proof of this by VW themselves. I begged my husband for a whole hour in the nearest Costa Coffee to purchase this van and won!

The Quote

After purchasing the van we took it home and gave her a name- Winnie was my daughters choice. I immediately rang Katie and told her that I would like a quote for the job to be completed by Wildworx. She was ecstatic for us as I had told her all about my dream in a lengthily conversation previously, the work calendar was checked and I was told they had space mid February which I was very happy about, I would only have to wait 2 weeks to drop the van off! The work would take 2 weeks to be completed. I wanted 20 inch Wolfrace Alloy Wheels, a pop top roof, Bilstein suspension (this was my husbands suggestion) lights installed in the roof bed a front splitter and the bumper scuff repaired. Katie said this wouldn’t be a problem and I was told I would receive my quote via email in the next day or so. By the evening I had received a quote with a very reasonable price attached. I booked in immediately as I was very very keen to go on Holiday in Winnie  this time with my family!

Dropping off the VW

The time came after a long 2 week wait to drop my new pride and joy off to Wildworx at 9am bright and early on a Monday morning. The location was beautiful! It is situated near a Fishery on a farm and very close to the M42 Birmingham. I was greeted by Sam who was also a director alongside Katie, I was offered a cup of tea and sat down in the office with him. He spoke with me in depth about the work he would be completing, and showed me the parts that were ordered upon the quote being agreed to, they had all arrived in time and he was eager to get started! My husband had followed us to the setting and we both had a look round, there were 3 vans in the workshop that were almost finished. Everything was very meticulous and clean and the work was of the highest standard. I could not wait to collect our Transporter in 2 weeks time.

Collecting our Van!

The time had finally come to collect our VW van. I was contacted on the Friday by Katie who advised me the van was completed and Sam would spend the weekend cleaning, polishing it and giving it a once over for us! I was so pleased and did not expect the extras to be completed at all especially not for the price we paid as we felt we had a very good deal already! We arrived and I could not believe it. The van was perfect! Shining inside and out with a complete makeover. The wheels were the first thing to catch my eye. Sam had recommended I have gloss black alloys and boy was I glad I agreed, the suspension had lowered it enough that it sat just right and with the had an ‘edgy’ look about it which I loved! The van looked completely different. The bumper scuff had been repaired and I couldn’t even remember where it was, the result was fantastic. The splitter was also gloss black and added to the ‘aggressive’ look we were after. The workmanship on the pop top roof looked spectacular especially with the lights underneath. The interior was like new, the paint was gleaming and the scratch had also been touched up free of charge and no longer visible.  I was so so happy I went with Wildworx and could not get over how much of a difference all these things had made to the look of our VW T6. I was also assured that the works completed by Wildworx came with a 1 year warranty and IF anything were to go wrong to call them straight away and it would be repaired no questions asked. I would 100% recommend them and cannot wait for my next adventure in the Summer, the possibilities are endless for us now!