Imac Hard drive upgrade Firmware Chicken Egg Help

Hello Apple community:

I'm upgrading an old G233 I mac for some friends and pretty much it
has been a learning experience as I've worked on piles of NeXT boxes,
Apple Power Macs, Intel PC's and figured this ought to be something
simple but it is a true pain to figure out.

I think this I've narrowed it down to a chicken egg install gig
purposely designed to create headaches for the masses.

In order to install a fresh copy of Mac OS 9.1 on the Imac on the new
replacement drive ; it says I need to update the firmware call the
drive the CHICKEN and Firmware the EGG.

I've done this many times succesfully on G4 Powermacs so I understand
the importance of how a firmware upgrade and Mac OS install is order
specific and if not done in synche leaves you basically stuck in some
special Apple install cryptic zone.

The catch with this is how if at all possible can I do this with what
I have currently now; as I only have 1 Imac with a crashed drive that
has been replaced and I don't have access to to the old version 8.6
which I suspect I currently need to get the install started as it may
have been the original drive but I have 9.1 which creates the puzzle.

9.1 CD requires you to upgrade the firmware first but how can you do
it with a new Hard drive as it won't let you upgrade the firmware from
a mounted cd?

I also have several G4's but am not sure if I can network this thing
and do a firmware upgrade and install that way?

Do I need to locate a copy of 8.6 and install 8.6 then install the
firmware then proceed with 9.1. Anyone know if 8.6 was released free
as I checked the Apple support maze and can't seem to find it just
references to network installs.

The original drive toasted so I replaced it and it is recognised ,
initialised, etc....

I can't start the firmware upgrade from the CD because it is a locked
volume and as the imac only boots up successfully from CD because the
new drive doesn't have the os installed yet as I say I can't boot from
the hard drive yet to upgrade the firmware.

NeXT, I thought if I copied the system file folder from the 9.1 CD
thinking I would be able to at least boot the hard drive to start the
firmware it might work, well that didn't work because the error
message said it wouldn't allow a copied of system file folder to boot
the drive.

I copied the firmware to a floppy and tried to boot it typing bfd but
I'm not sure how to start the boot sequence to start the firmware
upgrade from floppy as it says OK and does nothing else.

Anyone with an easy or difficult solution please let me know ,

I'm guessing that logically my best bet is to first install 8.6 then
the firmware then 9.1 and beyond. Any pointers to a downloadable 8.6
would be appreciated.

If there is anyway to Install the firmware using the 9.1 CD and a
clean drive and a usb floppy please let me know!

Also if I can network this in and do an install let me know.

Thanks in advance, appreciate your help!

Please email me direct at sales.DeleteThis@blackholeinc.com

Best regards Rob Blessin