Laying out uv's can be quite a tedious task and to my personal experience it isn't easy.
In the create uv's menu in the polygon preset there are a lot of projectionmethods available to you.
If your model lines up with the x-y-z axis i would rather use planar projections instead of automatic mapping(i only said it to you to look if it would work).
Select the faces along the x -axis and do a planarproject along x.
Repeat the same for y and z -axis.
I recommend using a texture with numbers so you can look if textures are stretched or flipped.
If you need further instruction on laying out uv's i would recommend first of all press f1 while your in maya, second i would suggest that you buy a book on texturing or third download a tutorial here or elsewhere on the internet on texturing.
I wish you the best of luck mate
(ps i've attached an image that you can use as a texture for laying out uv's)