Airframer... DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE A CERTIFIED FASTENER EXPERT.
Manufacturing aerospace fasteners is NOT a trivial operation. Every fastener is fabricated to a procurement specification, which includes extensive testing for EVERY production run of parts. Altering an existing fastener immediately cancels the certification of the fastener, since it no longer conforms to the “as fabricated state”. The reasons for this critical accounting for “standard fasteners”, exists due to the documented in-flight failures of standard parts that were fabricated and/or altered improperly and “sold” as genuine-to-the-spec parts.
Altering threads implies affects on the thread metallurgy, thread-form/tolerance and thread coating-system… just to name a few of the critical aspects involved. These factors in-turn affect not just static strength, but also fatigue durability, corrosion resistance, installation preload [minor thread thread-form differences will affect torque/pre-load], etc.
Minor modifications, such as drilling locking-holes thru the thread or head to match the part specification MAY be acceptable, since these are minor operations that could be accomplished before or after the basic part has been fabricated [including application of protective coatings]. However, such actions, do require engineering authority to accomplish, IE: liaison signature, a note on an engineering drawing, or a unique drawing dedicated to the altered part. We can also do more radical alterations to parts, such as shaving heads or shortening threads, etc [typically for structural clearance or weight savings] … however the parts NO LONGER conform to the original type certification: hence it is usually given a unique drawing number [x-xxxxx-x] that has been certified by [signed-off by] engineers with design, materials and stress authority and includes detailed instructions for this work.
I direct Your attention to NAS4002, NAS4003, NAS4004 and NAS4007, as an example of fabrication requirements for a typical series of moderate strength external threaded fasteners. There are several related Boeing specs for bolts made per Boeing specs… and related NASMs for much higher strength parts. Also, MIL-HDBK-1599A, Requirement 107, has a fairly complete/compact discussion relative to altering standard parts.
Note: for every production run of standard threaded fasteners, there are destructive testing requirements. The minimum production run is typically 10 fasteners: (9) randomly selected for destructive testing/evaluation… and (1) for actual sale [use].
If this were a war-critical requirement (battle-damage recovery, etc) I would not hesitate to recommend altering fasteners for specific short-term use. However, these deviations from accepted practices in routine maintenance operations have a bad habit of proliferating to become standard practice … and the parts often become “lost” [untraceable], very quickly. [Untraceable = Danger]
Regards, Wil Taylor