OK so to answer the question @caver01 I setup a VM as I did not want to mess with my already working 7 OS system and had 2 partitions: 1 2GB for OS9 and 1 10GB one for 10.4 Tiger.
I used the Tiger DVD to format both partitions / drives (I'm using UTM for virtual Macs here) and made sure that "Install OS9 Drivers" was unchecked. Installed Tiger to the 10GB drive and everything was OK. So far so good....
Then I installed OS9Lives to the 2GB drive and made that the primary drive and saw the floppy with a question mark - which is what I was expecting as I had not installed OS9drivers.
I then took a previously patched ROM using the python script "ataboot.py" this thread is about which I used on a real G4 PowerBook running Tiger which was created using the .hqx option. Based on what you mentioned previously I used stuffit expander to expand the file and replaced the ROM file in the system folder with this new one.
I booted and saw the floppy with the question mark.
So I'm at a dead end again. Does this patch even work? Will someone ever show it working with a tutorial video? Only time will tell .....
Glad I didn't open my PowerBookG4 up and spend another £18 on a drive just to find this out! ;P