Hi Jeff,
Yes, I would think it's quite practical to feed a chain around as you describe. It would probably need the distributor re-timing though ? It's definitely not an engine out job, at the very worst it would be dropping the sump and that would only be if somehow you couldn't get the chain links on the crankshaft.
I don't know about peening the rivet in situ, I've always used a split link chain, but there's nothing to stop you replacing yours with a split link if you'd prefer one.
Brian