ahh excellent well thats a result

Haha yeah you can dim the colors in the preferences, theres aa whole list for different areas of the colors in Maya.

Have you tried just hitting separate first? If this doesnt work simply select a face or point on the model and go to select> grow selection, then you can use the extract command to get the piece you need. Also be aware that under the edit mesh menu set you have to make sure that 'keep faces together' is ticked otherwise you will seperate the model on a per face command and end up with lots of separate polys

J