I have two brand new front upper control arms and I saw the old ones have shims. I am replacing the ball joints, tie rods, bushings and shocks. Should I put these shims back in or leave them off? The guy at sears said they charge extra if they need do adjust the shims during an alignment.

Also the car has about 165k on it. Should I trust the steering box and shaft to be safe? I am fixing this car up to take some miles off my Cobalt im using to commute to work. I am replacing the steering and suspension to make sure it's safe but I also dont want to buy parts unnecessarily since I don't know how long I want to keep the car. It's turning into a rust bucket.