Hello,

I found an Imbel FAL locally. I am thinking of picking it up, though I am wondering how the quality is on them. Are Imbels factory built or are they kit built? If kit built how are they reliability wise? I've been researching and it looks like Century seems to be a common rebuilder of Imbel FALs.

And is there anything else to look at before buying a FAL? An Imbel should be a metric pattern correct?

depends, post pics if you can and we can better identify

Imbel metric yes .
My local smith built mine from a surplus kit and an Imbel lower . If Century built the one you are looking at it will be marked Century .
The Fal is a wonderful thing in the right hands

This is not neccessarily true. I own several FALs with Century imported and marked Imbel GL receivers that were never touched by the trained monkeys.  

Century imported and sold Imbel GL receivers, but I have no evidence that they actually used them to build rifles.

Too many variables to figure out without pics.

Century Arms and Pacific Armament Corp. imported most of the high quality Imbel GL (gear logo) upper receivers. It may be Century marked but that doesn't mean they assembled the rifle.

Thanks for the advice. I will try and find out if it is an import from Pacific Armament Corp. Assuming it is actually assembled by Century, is the quality hit or miss?

As long as it's got an Imbel receiver anything that's wrong with it can prob be fixed without too much trouble.

You might have to spend some money on it to make it right.

Like the others mentenioned need pics to really tell what you have there.

All of the Springfield Armory SAR-48 FALs were built by Imbel and imported by SA. A company out of Texas imported Imbel made FALs as M444s. DSA was selling Imbel kit rifles built on DSA receivers. All of these options should be very reliable rifles. Imbel rifles built as kit rifles in the USA could be hit or miss depending on who did the build, but regardless, Imbel built are very good FAL and their receivers are highly sought after.

IMBEL is a state owned military equipment manufacturer in Brazil. Among the items manufactured by IMBEL are various FNFAL rifles. They manufactured these rifles under license from FN in Belgium. In order to do keep the license, IMBEL had to produce rifles to the specifications established by FN. This resulted in top quality rifles and accessories made at the IMBEL facilities.

What this means for you as a hobby builder or buyer is that unless the parts are worn beyond service limits, any FNFAL part made by IMBEL will be a top quality part and you can use it with confidence.