I had a car (1963 Chrysler New Yorker ambulance) that had a brake job done on it by someone that installed the brakes that way, except that they had done a 4 wheel brake job.. New cylinders all around, and all the primary shoes on the front wheels, and all the secondary shoes on the rear wheels. When the car didn't stop well, they moved onto replacing the master cylinder and the brake booster. Then the car wouldn't stop very well at all. The fire department decided to replace the car, since it had been in service for 20 years, and a member of the fire department purchased it, and stored it for many years, never doing anything with it. I purchased it from him when he retired and sold the property. I quickly found the shoe problem, but the booster problem didn't reveal itself for a few weeks, since the booster checked out OK as to working. Spoke to Booster Dewey, and he suggest that it might have the wrong push rod installed, and he sent me a longer rod. That didn't work either. Only realized what the problem was, when looking at the service manual, and realized that the booster in the picture, wasn't what was on the car. Found a correct booster, and had it rebuilt by Booster Dewey, installed it and the brakes worked again.
Along the way, I had replaced the wheel cylinders with "Made in China" cylinders from the auto parts store, and after bleeding the brakes, the next morning I found that one of the cylinders leaked, and spilled brake fluid on ramp of my lift. Replaced all 4 cylinders with "Made in the USA" nos cylinders found on eBay. When they came, I disassembled them, washed all the parts with brake cleaner, and reassembled with fresh assembly fluid, and installed them. Filled the system with DOT 5 silicone brake fluid, and the car still stops perfectly to this day. Sold the car to a friend, and he still loves to drive it. At over 8000 pounds, it just doesn't stop on a dime, unless that dime is in some pedestrians pocket!