Repaint DC-3 and retain rivets

I am very new to repainting FS2004 aircraft. I am looking for a method to repaint the DC-3 in FS 2004 with PhotoShop. I want to repaint the aircraft wings, but I do not want to lose the rivets, etc, just change the color from silver to white. Would the rivets be a layer?

Not necessarily... only real way to find out is to look at the texture in a paint program... or in imagetools it should tell you.