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I would not use regular stainless bolts you buy from the hardware store. As you found out, they are rather soft. If you can gall the threads, they are probably too soft to use.
A lot depends on how the brackets etc are mounted. If the bolts are being used to simply hold something in location, they may not be bad. If there is some type of stress on them, it would be another issue altogether. I sheared them on my loser control arms in the front. The lower control arm bracket is mounted to the frame at an angle. After hammering on the car for quite some time, they sheared the bolts. These were regular old stainless bolts. Get grade 8 at least.
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