An 18-year-old has turned a £5,000 Skoda Roomster into a cosy DIY camper in just 12 hours, spending only £400, and is now excited to tour Europe with her girlfriend. Zoe Buske, a software engineer residing in Wiesbaden, Germany, developed an interest in converting cars into campers after watching online videos at the age of 15.
She started planning her own conversion long before she even had a driving license. After successfully passing her driving test at the end of 2024, she purchased a 2009 Skoda Roomster for £5,000.
In May 2025, she completed her DIY conversion using 'furniture grade plywood' to create a bed and storage area above the back seats. That same day, she and her girlfriend, Ronya, 20, tested it out by spending the night in a car park.
Although Zoe initially felt a bit scared, she ultimately found the experience safe and comfortable. Later, they took the car to Luxembourg for camping and exploration. Zoe is now planning a three-week trip to Sweden and shares her adventures on TikTok, where a video showcasing her conversion process has garnered over 2.5 million views.
Speaking to PA Real Life, Zoe said: "I love looking at new places and travelling and this is just perfect – it was all convenient and my dream has come true. It kind of it makes you more free – you don’t need to plan as much."
Zoe has been fascinated by the idea of transforming cars into sleeping spaces ever since she began watching videos on the subject online when she was 15. She explained: "I did so much research, I looked at every possible car that I could afford to do it.
"Even before I had my licence, I knew I wanted to buy a car that was big enough for it, it was the only thing I would ever talk about. I just wanted to convert this car and travel Europe."
After passing her driving test at the end of 2024, she bought a 2009 Skoda Roomster in February 2025 for £5,000. "My parents, they’re both not the biggest fans of camping, so at the beginning they were worried it wasn’t going to be comfortable, but they were very supportive by the end," she added. "They helped me find the car and my friends thought it was really cool."
She kept the car in her grandmother's garage until she had saved enough funds to begin the conversion. By the end of May, she had achieved her target of around £400 for the project.
After that, she measured "every single part" of the car and created a rough outline for her conversion. She chose to install a bed over the folded-down back seats and trunk, along with some storage space for her gas stove – all constructed from wood, even though she had "never done woodwork" or any DIY projects before.
She said: "I got some furniture grade plywood and, basically, in a store, they cut the wood for me in the sizes that I had written down. Then I basically just screwed everything together. There was a bit of trial and error because my screws didn’t work and bits from the drill snapped in half.
"When I got that done, I went to Ikea and I bought a really thin foam mattress and cut it to fit – it isn’t perfectly rectangular in the back. Then I cut some material out to black out the back windows for when we’re sleeping."
Zoe successfully completed the full conversion within budget in only 12 hours, spread over three days, which was faster than she anticipated. On the day she wrapped it up, May 24, she experienced a tremendous "sense of achievement" and felt very "proud" of her work.
She was so excited to test it out that she spent that night in it, driving about half an hour from her home and parking in a car park. "Some teenagers decided to blast music so we had to move and we found another car park," she said. "We felt quite safe but it was scary at first.
"I have been camping with my father before, it wasn’t the first time for me to sleep outside, but we didn’t have proper window covers so I was super scared someone would come in or knock on the window and ask us to leave, which didn’t happen. And besides that, it was very comfortable. It wasn’t super cold or super warm, even though it was like 10C outside."
On May 29, Zoe and her girlfriend made their way to Luxembourg, where they camped and used their car to discover the city. Now, Zoe is eager to explore Sweden in her converted vehicle for three weeks, planning to park in various car parks along the journey, and she dreams of travelling all around Norway one day.
She said: "I think I do worry about my safety (as a woman) and I think it’s natural even though me and my girlfriend go together. We make sure we lock the doors from the inside and cover the windows so people can’t see in."
She has also been documenting her conversion and travels on TikTok under the handle @oldghostsinthecastle, with several of her videos receiving more than 150,000 views. "I had a lot of people doubt me and tell me the bed won’t hold and it ended up holding pretty fine, we had no issues," Zoe explained.
"I think what stuck out most to me was, one woman, she wrote that she was 60 years old and when she was my age she would never have done it and thought it was super cool that I did it. And I think the general response was positive but I had people say it doesn’t look good, but the goal is that it’s functional anyway."
To others interested in converting a car, she added: "I think the most important advice is to just start and don’t listen to people who think you can’t do it without experience."
