Wow, talk about dumb luck.
Over the years I owned multiple 57, 60, 61, and 62 Saratoga, Windsor, Newport, New Yorker, 300 Sport, and Letter Cars and only had one problem with mismatched parts causing a brake issue. Actually, I think it had to do with putting a rear drum/wheel package together where the wheel was not the right depth for the drum, so when tightening the lug nuts I changed the shape of the drum enough that there was a lot of 'pulsing' from the rear of the car when applying the brakes. Changing the wheel/tire made the problem go away, so I guess I didn't do any permanent damage to the drum.
Once, on purpose, I put the front brake assembly (everything from back plate forward) from a 64 onto a 62 so I could see if it was possible to move away from the two front wheel cylinder package to a more modern single cylinder type. It actually worked well once I resolved a slight interference issue in the steering setup. It was many years ago so I can't remember all the details, but it seemed easy to do at the time, but I was younger then. ;-)