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At one point you could blame operator error on the quantity of seam sealer that was applied to the area above the rear wheel wells.
It was applied strictly by the operator on the joint before the inner and outer bed sides were spot welded together at the marriage operation.
I did that job a few times. Once you got the hang of it, it was far from the worst job in metal shop.

The fact that the seam sealer was applied prior to spot welding may be why it looks more like foam than seam sealer, the spot welding process probably boiled it from the heat of the welding process.
It wasn't a foam when it was applied to the bed sides sheetmetal parts.

When they retooled for the 2002 body style they completely redid the metal shop and automated more of the process, whether that process was automated I can't say since I was in the chassis dept by them.

They spent $200 million to redo the metal shop for 2002 and the closed it all and tore everything down 7 years later.

Go figure.

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