I got a old 6 arm specialties t.a. chainring from a friend, and I'd like to put it on my bike except its notably bent out of shape. I read that aluminum chainrings should simply be replaced, but I'd kinda like to salvage this one. Does anyone have any suggestions, or is this hopeless?

Are you saying that the chainring is more oval shaped that circular? It's probably meant to be that way. Google "Biopace"

oh no its not a biopace, I've heard of those. Its definitely bent out of shape, its not meant to be that way.

I'm having a hard time imaging the problem, seems to me that if the ring has been compressed out of round then it probably was also bent a long way. I just can't imagine how a ring could be subject to the kind of force without bending all to hell. Could you post a photo?
I suspect that you're stuck with replacement.

If the chainring is bent (so that it won't lie flat when placed on a table top), it can possibly be straightened. If it's a minor bend, this is probably easiest to do with the ring installed on the crankset on the bike. The tool of choice for this job is an adjustable wrench (or the handy-dandy Park Tool Chainring Unbender and nail file or whatever, but are you really going to buy an expensive new tool for this one job that you'll maybe do twice every decade?). Anyway, it's pretty self-explanatory. Close wrench jaws on ring in bent area and tweak it back into shape.

More serious repairs, like to a seriously warped chainring, might be dicier. If the bend is severe, the kind where you just glance at the ring and say "Whoah!" then I would say, seek advice from someone more knowledgeable than I. Personally, I would probably play it safe and replace a ring that bad, but that's just me. Metal bends, after all. You just want to be careful about fatigue damage to chainrings, since a failure can be pretty unpleasant.