Hey Everyone,
Thanks for your help.
It turns out that the answer is a combination of things I learned here and elsewhere.
To print any number padded with zeros just place a 0 as the first character in the format specifier.
For an integer: %03d
For a real: %03.1f
awk 'BEGIN{v_nmbr=1; printf("%03d\n", v_nmbr )}'
001
awk 'BEGIN{v_nmbr=1.1; printf("%05.1f\n", v_nmbr )}'
001.1