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4 cells at 14.5V (which is high for most alternators) gives you 3.625V per cell which is almost perfect. I do agree at that voltage, it will charge them nearly full. But, most alternator don't put out a full 14.5V, so its likely going to be charged to a lower SOC. The closer you get to 100%, the easier it is to damage the cells via overcharging as you've said.
The only thing you should have to do is charge up each cell individually to top balance them. Then, assemble the pack and you should be good. Unless the internal cell resistance is horribly off from each other, your cells will stay well balanced over time and you shouldn't have any problems. Otherwise, just charge each cell up individually once a month or something.
I'm not saying a top balancer hurts, I just don't see it as being necessary in this application. There just seems to be too many issues with cheap balancers and failures which end up killing your cells.
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