It's relatively easy to restore them back to their original(default) settings though. Just run the below and the panels will be restored.
$ gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel
$ rm -rf .gconf/apps/panel
$ pkill gnome-panel
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$ gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel
$ rm -rf .gconf/apps/panel
$ pkill gnome-panel