Take the cowl and sand off all the paint, you'll need to repaint it.
You dont want to rivet over the rivets that are already on the plane. You have two options. Remove the covering and recover. Then follow John's Videos and use his method to detail. Or leave the rivets etc. as they are. That is unless you can remove them via alcohol or another solvent.
A trim iron from any of the manufactures will work just fine. You'll need to make the adaptor for the brass tubing. Not a difficult chore.
FYI not to get to anal or anything but the "rivets" on the canopy should be phillip head screws
and not huge.