I'd like to buy a FAL rifle , but I don't know squat about them .
Is there a FAL For Dummies type book or source ?

Inch / Metric , what does that mean ? I have read that Century FALs are troublesome ?
Imbel receiver are better , and what about Atlantics offering ?

Not looking for anything too special,  just an example that run without tinkering .

I just need to get up to speed with these things .

Thanks for any info .
Also where would someone buy a "Kit" what will it include ? How much is a kit ?

Right now knowing nothing I am leaning toward the Atlantic offering because they are new , are they built on kits or new productions ?
Are the Atlantic guns any good , they should be for what they cost .

If I sscored a troublesome Centery will Az Response team make it right ?

Inch/metric is generally referred as how the rifle is built to which measurement system. Think as this, if the mag was built around the imperial system aka inch pattern the rifle will accept inch pattern mags and parts. If the rifle was metric, then it will metric pattern  mags and parts. But there are some things may be one way interchangeable providing is if the tolerances allows it to be interchangeable. This is only a caveat not the rule.

There are books on the FAL and YouTube videos that will help explain  the rifle on the dumdum  level quite well. Fal files is all a good place to read the FAQ or older discussions.

IMBEL makes good receivers. Very rare to have problems with them. DSA is also good. But people tend to nick pick which production run is good or bad.
Century builds are a real hit or miss. One of the reasons, they have a reputation for being problematic.

Kits are going crazy in terms of pricing and availability. Try find a kit that has matching parts numbers and a barrel intact. Also,it depends on which kits came from which country and how badly used the kits are in.

Don't  know what Atlantic  has in their inventory. But they are GTG to deal with.

If you acquire a Century, it depends on Mark's mood if he accept the rifle for work.  He will be blunt why he wouldn't accept the work. There is no harm to ask. But there are other FAL gunsmith out there too. Terry Bridwell is one person comes to mind.

Does anyone make lightweight bbls?

Earlier Century rifles were made on marked and unmarked Imbel or Argentine receivers. These used English L1A1 parts kits but the receivers use metric mags.