What to do about wheel traction???

[nyu500]

The WBL Beartronics team recently purchased the tread for the tires that were advertised through FIRST, and can be purchased through IFI Robotics. We had plans to simply rivet the tread onto the stock wheels, but it seems to be an inch short. Does anyone know how to solve this dilemma? Also, if no other solution can be solved, does anyone know how to remove the original treading from the KOP wheels? They wheels tread was molded onto a plastic T attached to the base, so if we were to cut all of the tread off, it would cut off that T as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated.